Looking For Toushirou
by emichii
Summary: Once, a shinigami named Toushirou saved Karin from a Hollow. Now, four years later, as Karin starts high school, a boy with the same name arrives at her school. Is it a different person, or is Hitsugaya deliberately hiding his true identity from her?
1. Remember the sky that day?

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach! It belongs to Kubo-sensei! Hey, Kubo-sensei, can I have Hitsugaya? _PLEASE? _

**emichii: Bwahaha! You thought you got rid of me, didn't you? Well… here I am again! And yes, bringing you a new hitsukarin! ^_^ This will be my fifth hitsukarin story! It'll be quite a different setting from the others, and probably a lot more light-hearted than ****Growing Up ****and ****Your Bandages.**** Hope you enjoy! Please read and review! **

"Argh! I hate wearing skirts!" Karin complained as she glared at the grey regulation skirt laid out on her bed. Grumbling, she started buttoning up her white school blouse.

"Karin-chan, are you done yet?" Yuzu called from the corridor. "We're going to be late!"

"Eh?" Karin called back out to her twin sister. "What's the time?"

"Ten minutes till school starts." came the reply. "I'm leaving without you. You haven't even eaten the breakfast I made especially for you!"

Karin swore under her breath. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"

**Looking for Toushirou**

**Chapter 1- Remember the sky that day?**

She burst out of her bedroom, went running down the hallway, then turned around and ran back to grab her socks. Yuzu was smiling endearingly at her rowdy sister from the hallway before she left, carefully closing the front door behind her.

Karin stumbled into the kitchen, pulling on her socks as she made her way towards the table, picking up the toast that Yuzu had left for her. Shoving the toast in her mouth, she went rushing to her room again to pick up her school bag.

"Awww! My daughters are starting high school today, Masaki! They're growing up so fast!" Isshin bawled to his Masaki poster.

"Shut up, old man." Karin said automatically as she thundered across the living room to get to the hallway, skidding across the floorboards in her socks. Pulling on her school shoes and swinging her bag over her shoulder, she was almost out the front door when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Watch out for Hollows, Karin." Ichigo said, somewhat sleepily, scratching the back of his head. "Be careful."

"Yeah, I know!" Karin said crossly, almost dropping the toast from her mouth. She hurriedly swallowed the last bite with difficulty before turning to glower at her protective older brother. "I'm always careful! I can look after myself!"

She huffily went out the door and Ichigo was left shrugging his shoulders, feeling the familiar spiritual pressure of his sister fading away.

* * *

The morning air was crisp and fresh as fourteen-year-old Karin Kurosaki went racing down the road to school.

The weather was pretty darn fine for the first day of the hell-hole called high school, Karin thought wryly. She self-consciously ran a hand through her short black hair hurriedly as she ran, having forgotten to brush her hair before she left. Her legs felt really bare in the short grey skirt she wore, and she was glad that she had decided to wear her bike shorts underneath.

"Whoa!" She narrowly avoided crashing into a boy on a bike, and had to swerve to miss the woman walking her dog. "Sorry!" she called back, as she went on her way.

"Hey Karin-chaaann!" It was a singsong voice.

She turned her head to see the hat-wearing shopkeeper waving his fan at her from the porch of Urahara Shoten.

"If you run fast enough, you might run into Jinta! Silly boy also slept in today!" Urahara hollered cheerfully after her.

Karin smirked to herself as she ran faster.

"Morning, Karin-chan!" Orihime was waving from her apartment window. "Good luck at school today!"

"Thanks, Orihime!" She waved back at the orange-haired girl as she passed.

"Sorry about this," Karin apologized as she ran straight through a ghost on the path. "I'm in a rush!"

As someone who saw ghosts, it was courtesy not to walk right through them as if they weren't there. It was always much nicer to go around them and treat them like a living person.

"Morning, gramps!" she greeted the old man sitting at the bus stop, waiting for the bus that never came. The ghost pursed his lips at her and shook his head at her disrespectful manner. "I'll have you know I'm still in my prime!" he muttered, as another man walked past, wondering who on earth Karin was talking to.

Coming up to the school, Karin slowed down a little, trying to catch her breath. Looking up ahead, she recognized the garish red hair of Jinta Hanakari. Snickering, she slowed down behind him, carefully positioning her school bag to swing it at him.

"Oi, Jinta!" She swung her bag around so that it hit him on his back.

"Ow!" Jinta let out a string of swear words. "What was that for, Karin?" The red-head turned around to glare at her.

Karin grinned wickedly at her friend/rival/fellow-freak-who-could-also-see-ghosts.

"Heard you slept in today, stupid!"

"Look who's talking," Jinta retorted, "Your hair looks like you were caught in a tornado!"

Karin flushed and reached up to pat her hair flat. "Shut up!"

Jinta sighed with relief, his face also flushed from his run. "At least it looks like we made it," He kept walking down the road towards Karakura High.

Just then, the school bell rang from up ahead. Karin and Jinta both swore in unison before running madly once again down the street.

* * *

"Geez, Karin-chan!" scolded Yuzu, "don't you know how to tie a ribbon?"

Karin scowled as her sister tugged at the red ribbon around her neck, trying to fix it for her.

As she sat back down in her seat, she watched absentmindedly as Yuzu chattered with Ururu and Midoriko. Jinta was seated at the other side of the classroom, arguing with Pinta and Donny about something or other. Karin sighed tiredly and sank down deeper into her seat, resting her head on top of her folded arms on the desk.

Gazing out the window, yeah, the weather sure was fine today. Sunlight was streaming straight through the glass and onto her face. She wrinkled her nose and squinted.

Miss Ochi was up the front of the room, ignoring the ruckus and carefree chatter of her new class. She was organizing something with papers and books. Then, as though she suddenly recalled something, she hurriedly stood up and left the room.

_The sky is really blue today, _Karin thought. And then, it flashed in her mind, she remembered someone who she'd met once before. He… he had enjoyed looking at the sky.

Come to think of it, what was his name…? Karin flushed as she buried her chin deeper behind her arms. _Huh. Don't be stupid. _As if she'd ever forget his name.

It had almost been four years.

She remembered him, she always did. It was really kinda silly; it had been so long now. She was eleven back then, obsessed with soccer, not very good at keeping check of her spiritual pressure. Even now, she was still obsessed with soccer, but ever since she had discovered Ichigo's part-time job as a shinigami, he hadn't stopped pestering her about being careful of Hollows and ghosts.

But back then…

Karin scowled as she felt her cheeks turn pink.

_He _had saved her.

He was a short, white haired boy with a cold, unchanging expression on his face. He sat alone at the railing in the afternoons, constantly checking his phone. He was the one who picked up her soccer ball when it fell onto the road.

_Tch! Idiot! _Karin scolded herself. _This is ridiculous! Why am I still thinking about that guy! It was just that one time! _

Btu she couldn't help it, all this time, sometimes she found himself drifting back to these thoughts. And she'd be curious, and she'd wonder… _what might he be doing right now? I wonder if they play soccer at the Soul Society? I wonder… if he still looks up at the sky with the reminiscing look on his face? _

Yeah, that boy… had been a soul reaper captain. Even so, she had pestered him and forced him to come play soccer with her and her friends against the high school bullies. He didn't have to come on the day. _"Who knows?" _he always said, not committed. He was always like that; he did what he wanted, came and went as he pleased, with that plain look on his face. But that day, just when they had all decided that he wasn't going to show up...

He came! It was kinda lame, now that she thought about it, the way he arrived, the dust in the air, the wind blowing his collar up against his neck. She'd injured herself, hurt her ankle and had just about given up hope when he arrived. And he was the same as always, so coolly detached, but to know that he'd actually bothered to turn up and help her out… that always made her heart swell up with gratefulness.

And then, when the Hollow attacked, he saved her.

Of course, her pride wouldn't let her think of herself as the damsel in the distress. She didn't like depending on someone else, like being in their debt. She could've handled it herself, she thought, but when she kicked that soccer ball at the Hollow's head, it had done nothing.

He was a soul reaper. It was amazing, suddenly he was there in his black shihakusho, white captain's haori billowing behind him as he single-handedly stopped the Hollow's attack. She remembered staring wide-eyed as he quickly defeated the Hollow, without breaking a sweat.

Karin looked up suddenly as the class fell silent. Miss Ochi was back and saying something about a new transfer student. She was sliding open the classroom door now, saying something to someone standing outside.

"Now you all be nice to him, okay? You might all know each other from Junior High, but it's not easy to change schools-"

"_Why do you always come to look at the sky?" _she had asked him one afternoon.

The sky then was a striking orange colour, streaking across. Shades of gold and yellow lit up the clouds in the sunset. The sky went on for ever. She had thought that it was beautiful. Perhaps the sky at Soul Society where he came from, was nowhere like this. Perhaps there wasn't even sky there, she thought.

"_It brings back memories," _was all he said.

It had already been so long. Of course, they weren't really close. Just odd friends of some sort, sky-watching companions. But there'd always been something about him that Karin admired, looked up to.

_Jerk, _Karin thought with a scowl on his face as she grudgingly sat up to look at the front. It'd been a long time, but she still thought of him.

_If he had stayed a little longer… I always thought that maybe we would've been friends. _

"Now, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us your name," Miss Ochi's voice was saying.

_Heck, I only know his name. It was… _

Karin's eyes widened at the boy standing at front of the classroom. He had icy blue-green eyes that pierced through anyone who looked at him and snow-white hair even though he looked so young. His voice was slightly bored and uncaring, his face showed no expression.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou," said the boy.

**Thanks for reading! ^_^ Yeah, it's certainly a different theme from the other stories, don't you think? Well, I hope you enjoy! By the way, if anyone remembers the names of Karin's soccer-playing friends, please tell me! I only know Donny (the clown-looking-like boy) and Pinta (the one with the hair that sticks straight up in a point). Please review and tell me what you think! **


	2. There's no such thing as shinigami

**Helloooo! And thankyou so much for all the reviews, faves and alerts! Of course you have the time to fave and alert, please drop me a review as well! It's great to know what you think! ^_^ I'll continue to do my best! Oh, and much thanks to Ash-chan13, who got me the names for the rest of Karin's soccer buddies. Kudos! Please read and review! ^_^**

He was strikingly familiar, but at the same time, not quite. What did he say his name was again?

_Oh, that's right… _As if she'd ever forget. _Hitsugaya Toushirou. _

**Chapter 2- There's no such thing as shinigami **

Hitsugaya Toushirou was standing at the front of the classroom, looking out at the sea of brand new highschoolers.

_Good lord, _he thought to himself, keeping his face composed and expressionless. _What on earth am I doing here?_

He scanned over the crowd of faces there; everyone was looking at him with somewhat awed faces. He felt himself suppress a scowl. What was their problem? He knew he had white hair like an old man's, but he was not that old! And what was that… the girls seated in the front row had their jaws wide open, their eyes fixed on him, blushes creeping onto their faces. Hitsugaya felt slightly uncomfortable.

But… He noticed that out of the class, there was one student who was not paying even the slightest bit of attention to him at all. She was sitting on the right side of the classroom, at the desk closest to the window. She'd been looking out the window, slumped over on her desk, letting the sunlight fall from the glass onto her face. She had short black hair that almost touched her shoulders, and it fell over her face as she gazed out the window, seemingly reminiscing, dreaming.

She was the only one not looking up at the front, the only one not paying attention, the only girl not marveling at him.

And then…

"Now, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us your name,"

She looked up.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou," he said.

And her eyes widened.

* * *

It had to be him! _It had to! _Karin's jaw dropped open. Who else, she thought, who else would have such snowy white hair in such a ridiculous style?

It was all she could do to keep herself from jumping up from her seat, to stand up and point an accusing finger at the boy, to scream out at the bastard: _I KNOW IT'S YOU! DON'T THINK YOU CAN IGNORE ME! YOU RECOGNIZE ME TOO, DON'T YOU?_

But, biting her lip, she stayed seated resolutely at her desk, and tried to pull her awestruck gaze away from him. _It must be him, it had to! _Suddenly, she felt a strange ache in her stomach; _it must be lunchtime by now_, she grumbled.

"You can sit over there next to Usaka-kun, Hitsugaya-kun." Miss Ochi was motioning over towards the opposite side of the classroom.

She snuck a glance at him as he walked across the classroom, ignoring the squeals of the girls at the front row. Okay, so he was kinda maybe just a bit good-looking, if you squinted a little…

_Pfft. _Who was she kidding?

She felt her face redden slightly as she grumpily slid down into her previous slumping position, secretly watching him from behind her crossed arms. He had grown a bit since they'd last met, and she knew it had to be him. Those were his icy blue-green eyes that so rarely betrayed emotion, that was his voice- though it had grown a little deeper. Heck, only he had snow-white hair like that, and man, they had the same name!

He looked bored as he crossed the classroom and took a seat next to Usaka, who also gaped at the boy exuding such an aura of coolness.

_Hmph, _Karin couldn't help smiling reluctantly. _Toushirou's grown up a bit! _

Watching him, suddenly, something inside her went haywire. She didn't know why, but that strange empty feeling drummed in her stomach again and she decided she must be feeling hungry.

_Hey… I wonder… Toushirou, do you remember me? _It had been so long… four years now, but seeing him again, she knew it was him… actually … she'd never forgotten him.

'cause she'd been waiting all this time to finally meet him again.

* * *

"_Will you be back sometime?" She had kept her voice gruff, because she was Karin Kurosaki, she didn't like to show that she cared. _

_Once again, he said his favourite phrase as he stuffed one hand into the pocket of his jeans and glanced down at his phone in the other hand. "Who knows?"_

_They were standing on the road on the hill, next to the railing where they often met to watch the sky. That day, the sky had been a brilliant orange-yellow, the warm light shining down onto them._

_For some reason, suddenly she started feeling panicked, even hurt. "But… you will come back, won't you?" _

_He turned for a moment, his blue-green eyes settled on her with a questioning look. "Who knows?" he said again. _

_His who-knows-who-cares attitude pissed Karin off. Before Hitsugaya could open his mouth to say anything else, she had picked up the soccer ball at her feet and hurled it straight at his head. _

_Hitsugaya's eyes widened and he jerked away from the ball. The soccer ball landed on the ground, a few steps away from his feet. _

"_WHO KNOWS?" She shouted at him. "Don't give me that crap! You're the one that knows, for crying out loud; make your own decisions for once! You're the one who chooses your own actions, and thinks your own thoughts! Just… you…" Her voice had trembled, stuttered, suddenly vanished._

_She didn't know why, but suddenly she felt so desperate, so hopeless. She actually… she wanted him to stay!_

_But Hitsugaya just looked at her for a moment longer, still with that uncommitted glance. She was breathing hard, surprised by her own outburst, her arms hung limply by her side. She felt afraid somehow, shy to look up and see what expression he might have on his face. For some reason her face… her face was burning. Man, she felt so embarrassed…_

_Waiting for his response, and then suddenly he spoke up. "Kurosaki."_

_She immediately lifted her head up and snapped: "It's Karin!"_

_And he smirked. "I know." _

_Karin gaped at him, her hackles rising. "You…" She felt her hands tighten into fists as she glared after him. What a jerk!_

_He didn't look at her, his face unexpressive as he looked down at Karin's soccer ball at his feet before he kicked it back to her. Karin watched wide-eyed as the soccer ball bounced back to her and she caught it in her hands._

"_Stop losing your soccer ball," he said, "I'm not going to keep fetching it for you." _

_And then he turned away, putting his hands into his pockets as he walked off down the road._

_Karin stood there, stunned, holding the soccer ball in her hands. And to her horror, her heart began beating faster in her chest as she stared after his retreating figure. _

* * *

Karin didn't get a chance to talk to Hitsugaya until the end of the day. The class was noisy and full of activity as the students busied themselves packing up their bags and belongings, forcing themselves through the crowded corridors, generally mucking around.

Karin peeked over at the white-haired boy from her desk, slowly taking her time as she slipped her books into her bag. He was calmly slinging the strap of his book bag over his shoulder, ignoring the chatter of everyone around him.

"Karin-chan?" Yuzu was saying, "Are you ready to leave?"

"Oh!" Karin's face flushed. "Um, yeah… just go on ahead! I'll be home soon! I've just got to… check on something."

Yuzu looked slightly surprised. "Okay."

"…ummm…"

Both Karin and Yuzu looked up at the boy also standing beside Karin's desk with a face red enough to match his hair.

A devilish grin spread across Karin's face. "What is it, Jinta?"

Jinta pulled a hideous face at Karin, before mumbling something to Yuzu.

"Eh? What was that, Hanakari-kun?" Yuzu smiled pleasantly.

"Gahh!" Jinta blurted out, frustrated. "NEVER MIND!"

"…huh?" Yuzu looked crestfallen.

Karin grinned with difficulty and then kicked Jinta under the table.

"OWW! What the heck was that for?" Jinta turned to Karin.

"What do you think it was for?" She growled under her breath at him. "If you don't do something now, you'll never get anywhere!"

Jinta flushed and glanced over at the unsuspecting Yuzu Kurosaki, who was looking utterly lost.

"I don't care anymore!" He snapped; face red, crossing his arms over his chest. "…she doesn't like me anyway." he added dejectedly, soft enough so that only Karin could hear.

Karin stood up from her desk.

"What were you going to say before, Hanakari-kun?" Yuzu wondered.

"I told you, never mind-" Jinta said.

Karin stomped on his foot.

"C-CAN I WALK YOU HOME, KUROSAKI?" He shouted, his foot in excruciating pain.

Yuzu's eyes went wide. "Oh!" Then her face softened into a pleasant smile, like always. "Sure!"

Karin stuck out her tongue at Jinta as she walked away.

* * *

She found him in the hallway, pausing in the corridor, texting away furiously on his mobile phone.

_It had to be him, _she thought, he was still addicted to his phone!

"Toushirou!" she said.

He looked down at her. Yes, he was looking down at her now, he'd gotten taller. But it was the same white hairstyle, the same cold blue-green eyes. And it was the same excited thumping inside Karin's chest.

"…can I help you?" Hitsugaya asked politely.

_Why are you calling me by my first name?_

"It is you, isn't it?" she demanded, suddenly her voice growing excited. "I know it's you, Toushirou!"

The expression on his face didn't change at all; there was no flicker of recognition across his eyes. If there was any change at all on his face, it was only that his scowl got bigger.

Karin couldn't help it, she laughed. "I knew it was you!" Her voice was happy.

Hitsugaya stared at her.

_Why are you so happy to see me? _

He didn't say anything for a while, just watching her with that blank face of his.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "…I don't know who you are."

Karin froze. Her smile vanished. "Your name's Hitsugaya Toushirou, right? You're the soul reaper that I met four years ago…"

Hitsugaya frowned. "…a 'soul reaper'? What's that?"

Karin stared at him, disbelieving. "…what… do you mean? You…" Her voice faltered and for some reason, she felt her fingers start trembling.

Then he went on, his eyes widening a little. "Oh… you mean like a shinigami? Like a death god?"

Karin was at a loss for words.

And Hitsugaya smiled, he actually smiled. It was a small, ironic, cynical smile, like a joke. "I don't believe in stuff like that."

And he put his hands in his pockets and turned to walk away. "There's no such thing as shinigami."

**Thanks for reading, everyone! I swear I spent more time agonizing over that last conversation than the rest of the chapter put together. Man, it was just PAINFUL to write! Painful! Scenes like that always make me cringe for the characters… sob… Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! ^_^ Oh don't be like that! All will be revealed… eventually. emichii. **


	3. Maybe this Time

**Thanks for all the faves and alerts and especially the reviews! Now I do get notifications for when someone faves and alerts, so come on, if you like it, drop me a review, will ya? Anyway, I'm surprised at the incredible accusations people are making about Toushirou! Haha, no, he hasn't been brainwashed and he isn't a clone or… heck, just read on and find out for yourselves! emichii**

Hitsugaya was walking along the road, on the hill that overlooked Karakura. As he looked down, he could see the park, and the soccer field where Karin usually played with her friends. It was late afternoon.

"_Your name's Hitsugaya Toushirou, right? You're the soul reaper that I met four years ago…"_

She had looked so crestfallen when he told her he didn't know her. That was just a few hours ago. He couldn't help feeling just a tiny bit guilty.

He suddenly noticed that she was down there, at the soccer field, alone. She was still in her school uniform, perhaps she hadn't gone home since school ended. He stopped and watched her for a moment.

Karin was kicking a soccer ball back and forth, seemingly absorbed in her element.

Hitsugaya smiled.

**Chapter 3- Maybe this time…**

Karin thought she could feel someone nearby, as though someone was watching her. The funniest thing was, it was as though they had an enormous spiritual pressure. It wasn't Rukia or Ichi-nii's, so…

Karin frowned, and looked upwards at the nearby hill.

There was nobody there.

* * *

"Toushirou!"

Hitsugaya looked up at the black-haired girl standing in front of his desk. "What is it?" He kept his voice level, emotionless.

Karin scowled, glaring down at the desk, arms crossed over her chest, scuffing the toe of her shoe against the floor. "Um…"

He looked at her, patiently, face expressionless. She looked at him for just a moment and felt her face flush before proudly turning away again. He looked just like him!

She took a big, deep breath. _He looks like him, but what would I know? I… I haven't seen him in four years! And even if he looks like him, he's not the Toushirou I know! I…_

She looked at him and said politely, stiffly. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I just assumed that you were someone I knew and I must've shocked you quite a bit. I'm sorry." Her face was twisted in a frustrated frown as she bowed her head down slightly.

Hitsugaya raised one eyebrow quizzically and said nothing.

Karin turned to leave, mentally scolding herself. _You stupid, stupid girl! Of course you had to do that! It had been the very first day of school and she had to act like a moron! It's not him, Karin,_ she told herself, _even… even if you really wish to see him again, it… is… NOT… him._

"Hey."

He was saying something. She turned, looked at him and her face flushed. "What?" She blurted out, sounding somewhat rude.

Hitsugaya Toushirou looked up at her from his seat behind his desk. "…then why don't we start again?"

Karin stared.

He calmly reached across the desk, hand outstretched. "My name is Hitsugaya Toushirou. What's yours?"

Karin felt her face burning as she reached to shake his hand. "I'm Kurosaki Karin," she said indignantly, "and don't you forget it!"

He half-smiled, it was a little smirk. "Okay, Kurosaki."

Karin stared at his slight smile and felt her face heat up. His hand was rough and calloused. Her face was burning, burning. She was so embarrassed; she swore people could see the steam rising from her face.

"My name is _Karin_!" She snapped as she pulled away and stomped off.

* * *

"…_then why don't we start again?" _

Karin grumbled as she leaned on the railing. She was standing on the courtyard of the school roof, listening absently to the slight chattering and noise of the people around her. From up here, she could look down at see the road, and then further across was the park. She couldn't help sighing a little as she closed her eyes for a moment.

_It's not him. Of course not. What did you expect? _

But… he looked a lot like him. He reminded her of him, so much. And Karin couldn't help it, even if he _wasn't _the same Hitsugaya Toushirou; she still… wanted to be around him. Wanted to get to know him, even if it was a different _him_, maybe… this time… with _this _Toushirou, they could be friends.

She was suddenly startled by Yuzu patting her on the shoulder.

"Eh? What's up, Yuzu?"

Yuzu smiled pleasantly and showed her the carefully prepared lunchbox in her hands. "Aren't you going to eat the lunch I made, Karin-chan?"

"Of course, Yuzu!" She grinned at her twin sister. Karin sat down and started to break apart the wooden chopsticks.

"_I'm Kurosaki Karin, and don't you forget it!" _she had snapped.

He's not the same boy. But things were different now, right? That Toushirou… was out there somewhere… fighting Hollows and whatnot… still with that noncommittal attitude. And Karin…

She smiled ironically to herself. Her and this new Toushirou, whoever he was…

It was a new start. It was all beginning again. They were starting all over again.

* * *

The bright afternoon sun was falling down over her shoulders as she looked up at the sky. Somewhere far away, there was a rumbling in the air. Karin let the soccer ball drop to the ground beside her feet as she turned towards the road.

_Was it a Hollow? _And then, almost as quickly as she had sensed it, the pressure vanished. She blinked, confused.

Karin shrugged to herself as she kicked the soccer ball up into her hands. _Who knows? Maybe Ichi-nii… _

Besides, it was time to get home anyway. Yuzu would be wondering where she was. She looked around for her school bag, but couldn't see it where she'd left it.

"Looking for this?"

She looked up and saw Hitsugaya Toushirou standing on the hill, holding up her school bag.

She frowned and began running up the hill towards him, "How did you get it?"

"It's yours then?" He raised a quizzical eyebrow, his mouth curved upwards in an almost smile.

She grew frustrated and found her face flushing as she snapped, "It's mine! Now give it back!"

He shrugged and tossed it to her, she struggled to catch it. "You didn't have to throw it!" She complained.

"Then don't leave it lying around," he said with a shrug. And Karin thought she saw a hint of a smile on his face again.

…_the heck? _She turned away from him and wondered why everything about him was so similar yet at the same time not quite so. And she was so confused.

"…I'm going home." She said indignantly, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Karin paused as she stood there for a moment on the pavement. Her face twisted in a pouting frown as she muttered, "…See you tomorrow, Toushirou,"

Hitsugaya blinked. And then slowly he gave a seemingly nonchalant smirk. "See you, Kurosaki."

"I told you!" Karin's face went pink. "My name is _Karin!_" She snapped as she stormed off.

* * *

Something about him really bugged her, Karin thought as she walked home. She couldn't work out what it was and that frustrated her all the more. A lot of the things he did seemed similar, even his aloof facial expressions.

Karin shrugged it off as she opened the front door and heard Yuzu's voice calling out a greeting to her down the hallway.

_Hitsugaya Toushirou… whoever you are… you are still as mysterious as always. _

And Karin wondered, if maybe this time, she'd understand him a little bit more than before.

* * *

"Oi! Taichou!"

He looked up to see the assistant captain with the generous bosom and long golden hair running toward him. He couldn't help scowling at her presence.

"What is it, Matsumoto?"

"Ehh, it's just not fair, Captain," She pouted as she stood across from him.

"What's not fair?" He stood up from where he had been seated and looked at her.

"Why do you get to talk to Karin-chan again but I'm not allowed to even see her?" she whined. "What is with all this pretending and everything? What are you planning, Taichou?"

Hitsugaya didn't answer, his face blank and cold as he walked on ahead of her.

"Hey! Wait up!" She complained to herself as she went on, "Sheesh, and you make me run all over the place to take care of the Hollows while you have fun playing a normal human being!"

Matsumoto huffed as she crossed her arms across her chest as she hurried after him. She passed through the other people easily, they couldn't even see her. All they could see was one teenaged white-haired boy walking alone.

"_What is with all this pretending and everything? What are you planning, Taichou?" _

Hitsugaya didn't answer any of the questions Matsumoto had asked, instead smirking to himself under his unchanging stoic expression.

"_I told you!" Karin's face went pink. "My name is Karin!" _

And the funny way she scowled when embarrassed because she was a girl with pride. Hitsugaya walked on and hid a smile, all the while thinking:

…_You haven't changed at all… Karin. _

**And the conspiracy grows! Sorry for the very late update, I've dug myself into a hole as you can see! Heh, this wasn't a terribly exciting chapter and nothing really happened, sorry. I guess I'm just setting up the background. Things should start moving by next chapter! Until then, hang in there and bear with me, all right? Please review! I need all the encouragement I can get! emichii**


	4. Cross Country Hollow Killing

**Whassup? Thanks for all your reviews, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed that revelation at the end of the last chapter, haha! Sorry for the horribly long wait, yes, I have indeed been a horrible slacker and procrastinator. Crap! I just realized its been OVER TWO MONTHS since my last update! *ducks to avoid flying rubbish and various other painful objects in her direction* Anyway, here's chapter 4! Hope you enjoy! Please read and review! **

Karin wasn't a bad student. She just never put much effort in anything. She was pretty smart and didn't have too much trouble with any of her work, but she never had any motivation for working hard, so in the end, her grades were not so good.

On the other hand, Yuzu kept her perfect record of straight As with no problem at all.

However, the one subject Karin excelled the most in was sport. Definitely sport. Coincidentally, it was also the only subject she enjoyed, as well as the one subject Yuzu regularly failed.

Which explained why for the first time in the new school year, Karin Kurosaki was looking forward to class.

**Chapter 4- Cross-Country Hollow-Killing **

_Why on earth am I doing this again? _Hitsugaya thought to himself as he grumpily changed into his sports uniform in the boys' changeroom. The boys around him were happily talking and joking among themselves. Hitsugaya kept to himself and glared at everyone near him.

The white-haired boy sighed, as he sat down on the bench and tied up the laces of his shoes.

"_What is with all this pretending and everything? What are you planning, Taichou?"_

Pfft. As if he would ever tell her. Tell Matsumoto anything and within seconds the whole of Soul Society as well as everyone within five-hundred metre radius of the well-endowed woman would know.

He stood up and headed out of the changeroom.

* * *

Jinta Hanakari was on a mission. The red-haired boy stood on the field, chin up and arms crossed. _All right! _He told himself. _You just sit back and watch, Kurosaki! _He looked around him at the other boys seated on the grass. _I'll totally beat them all!_

"HEY! Jinta!"

Jinta almost jumped out of his skin as Karin appeared from behind him, jovially hitting him in the arm.

"Crap, Karin, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Jinta snapped as he quickly looked over at the demure Yuzu sitting on the sidelines, hoping that she hadn't seen his wimpy reaction.

"Eh?" Karin followed Jinta's gaze to her sister, and then her mouth widened into a broad grin. Whispering, she taunted him, "You gonna try impress Yuzu, huh?"

"Shut up!" His face turned the colour of beetroot.

Karin shrugged and pulled a sympathetic expression. "Well, good luck! 'cause you know you've never been able to run faster than me!"

Jinta looked like he was about to do something violent. "That's because you haven't got a single feminine bone in your body!"

Karin snapped. "You take that back! Right now!" The black-haired girl instantly grabbed Jinta by the shirt collar, who in turn grabbed Karin's shoulders and growled: "No! Because it's true!"

The two proceeded to bicker. From her spot on the sidelines, Yuzu sighed. It seemed like Karin and Jinta were the only two teenagers who hadn't matured at all from junior high.

"KUROSAKI! HANAKARI! Shut up and sit down! Do you two want to stay behind and do extra laps during lunchtime?"

The two feisty teens shut their mouths and sat down with the rest of the class. Yuzu smiled hopelessly, slightly embarrassed but as always, adoring her twin sister. Hitsugaya sat at the back of the group, silent.

The class complained and made a variety of excuses as they were instructed to run a long cross-country lap around Karakura high, past the playground, around the oval and over the bridge back to where they were standing.

_It's not that far, _thought Hitsugaya.

_It's not that far_, thought Karin.

She could hear Usaka and Pinta already discussing cutting through the oval and down the streets as a short-cut back to school. Karin shook her head in disgust.

As the students noisily lined up, Karin and Jinta glared at each other.

"I'll definitely beat you this time," Jinta sneered.

Karin snickered. "Maybe in your dreams!"

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes.

As the students took off at the coach's whistles, the tenth company captain watched them rush off ahead of every one else. Being smart, Hitsugaya paced himself, finding it easy to move at a fast and constant speed while the students around him slowly dropped behind.

Jinta and Karin were at the front of the pack. They pulled ahead, racing way past the school and onto the path around the oval where Karin and her friends played soccer.

Jinta was breathing hard as he dug in, gritted his teeth and pushed ahead of Karin. Karin frowned and ran faster. They battled for the first spot for a while, both of them getting more exhausted as they passed the oval and headed towards the bridge. A long way back from them, straggling behind was the rest of the class.

"What? Are they crazy?"

"Why would anyone deliberately run so fast?"

During the stretch towards the bridge, Karin finally left Jinta behind with a cheeky but proud grin. "See ya back at school, Jinta!"

Jinta stopped and bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he breathed hard, struggling to catch his breath back, feeling the sweat on his forehead.

_Damn it! _He cursed under his breath, panting as he looked up at the black-haired girl running on in the distance.

Suddenly, he felt someone run past him. Surprised, he looked up to see the new white-haired transfer student running on ahead of him, not breaking a single sweat. And Jinta's eyes narrowed, because he was certain he'd seen that boy before. But… Jinta stood up, confused. …who _was_ he?

"Hanakari-kun! Are you okay?"

Jinta turned to hear the tired sweet voice of Yuzu Kurosaki who was running slowly towards him. His face instantly turned pink.

"A-ah! Kurosaki…"

* * *

Hitsugaya was catching up to Karin, who was starting to tire and slow down.

Just as Karin was about to slow right down to a jog, he appeared beside her with a smirk.

"What? Stopping already?"

The expression on her face was priceless.

Hitsugaya watched, amused, as she picked up the pace again. Her face flushed a light pink and she scowled. Karin Kurosaki hated to lose.

Karin scowled as she ran on, her pride wasn't about to be bruised again in front of this annoying boy! He didn't seem to be having any trouble at all; he wasn't even breaking a sweat. She couldn't help it; she lowered her expression to the ground in front of her and watched her feet tap rhythmically on the pavement. She couldn't help feeling… self-conscious around him.

The last time she'd been running beside a Toushirou Hitsugaya had been that time on the soccer field. And that Toushirou Hitsugaya had been the one that she'd…

Frustrated, the heated Karin shook her head and ran faster, pulling ahead of Hitsugaya.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow and ran faster to match her step again.

Karin turned and scowled at Hitsugaya.

"What?" He said innocently. "I thought you liked to race?"

Karin blushed and turned away so that he couldn't see. Hitsugaya felt something like a smile tug at his lips, but kept his stoic face.

They ran across the bridge, which stretched across the river. The pavement from the bridge extended towards the riverbank, above which were the hill and the road where the other Hitsugaya Toushirou used to sit.

From her position on the bridge, Karin could see that hill clearly.

He was suddenly stunned when Karin slowed to a standstill, while he ran on a few steps without her.

"Karin?" He said without thinking, and then immediately scolded himself. _Crap! What am I saying? I meant to say 'Kurosaki!'_

She didn't respond. She was just standing there on the bridge, eyes wide, staring straight ahead at the riverbank on the other side. There was a look of pain written across her face.

Hitsugaya pulled himself together. "…Kurosaki?"

"Argh!" Karin was bowing her head and had her hands holding onto the sides of her head.

Hitsugaya noticed with shock that there was heavy spiritual pressure in the air, and heard the distant strains of a Hollow approaching.

_What is this? How did she sense it before I did? _He looked around angrily for the direction the spiritual pressure was coming from. _It must've been because… _He looked back at the girl standing there. _…I was distracted! _Hitsugaya's icy blue-green eyes darkened. _…by none other than you, Karin Kurosaki! _

Karin gritted her teeth and stiffened her shoulders. _Damn it! _

_Of course! _Hitsugaya remembered. _She gets a headache when she senses spiritual pressure!_

His mind was racing. He couldn't blow his cover, yet he could sense the Hollow coming closer and closer. "Kurosaki, are you okay?"

She looked at him and for some reason her eyes were teary. "Sh-Shut up! I'll be fine! I've just… got a headache!"

He had… his gikongan in his pocket, didn't he?

He could do that, right? Run off, use gikongan, get rid of the Hollow and get back into his gigai before she suspected a thing. The only problem was if she saw him in shinigami form.

But first, say something, stay in character! You're not supposed to let her know you sense anything wrong! "What is it, Kurosaki?" He tried to sound confused, as though completely oblivious to the Hollow materializing in the river.

She looked up and glared at him, her dark eyes furious. "Leave me alone! You're the one who wanted to race, right? Then go on ahead! It's not like… you wouldn't…" Her voice faltered as she glared off to the side.

"_There's no such thing as shinigami." _

Karin's frown deepened as she turned back and yelled at him: "You wouldn't believe me anyway!"

'cause nobody else ever did. _You wouldn't believe me if I told you! You wouldn't save me like he did... You don't know anything, Toushirou, 'cause you're not him. _

Her hands clenched into fists. "Just leave me alone!" she screamed.

Yeah, 'cause that was what she always did around others when Hollows attacked. Because she was always the only one who knew what was happening, the only one who could do anything. And the only way she'd ever been able to protect her friends was to tell them to go away and leave her alone. And she knew that they talked about her, they thought she was strange, when suddenly Kurosaki was losing it and in another one of her moods, when she pushed others away and told them to beat it. But at least, they were all safe in the end, and that's what mattered, right?

Karin ignored Hitsugaya and started to look around her, trying to work out what she could use to fight, how she could defeat this Hollow. It was growling and advancing towards them, she wondered if he could see the movement in the water where it was standing.

Hitsugaya's eyes narrowed, as he took one last look at Karin, standing there, facing it all alone. And then, he gritted his teeth and ran on down the bridge.

* * *

Karin cursed under her breath as the Hollow advanced and took a swipe at her, swinging its long arm across the length of the bridge. Luckily, none of the other students had gotten to the bridge yet, and there weren't any other people there. Karin ducked and managed to avoid getting hit; she ran further down the bridge and jumped onto the handrail, teetering for a moment on its short metal width.

Wasn't there _anything_ she could throw at or kick or hit it with?

The Hollow shrieked and headed towards her and she, biting her lip, ran as fast as she possibly could along the handrail without falling off, and trying to grab as much momentum as she could, leapt off the rail and sent a huge kick at the Hollow's mask.

She bounced off the Hollow's face and fell into the river with a splash, shivering as the cold water chilled her. The Hollow mask barely even cracked.

Karin sat up in the shallow water and breathed out in frustration. She was soaked and shivering, as she got to her feet. The rest of the class would have a lot to talk about when she got back.

She breathed out shallowly, tried to wipe the water running down her face away, and glared up at the Hollow standing in front of her. She flinched, hunching up her shoulders and braced herself as the Hollow swung both its huge arms at her.

She was suddenly stunned by the sound of the Hollow's arms, falling down into the river with a crash, the sound of the painful roar it gave as it watched its arms dissolve into little spiritual particles that vanished into the air.

Looking up in shock, all she could see was the Hollow in front of her crashing to the ground, falling into the water, its mask sliced cleanly in half as it vanished before her.

_What? How…? _Karin looked up and around her urgently, straining to find who it was that had saved her. For a split second- and the feeling was so short, she felt someone's spiritual pressure and before she knew it, it was gone.

Someone _was _there. Someone _had_ been there, just then.

She turned around in a hurry, and saw him for a moment. It was so fast, she wasn't sure if he was actually there, but surely, it _was _him, wasn't it?

All she saw was his back. And Karin's eyes widened, as his figure faded away and vanished. But there was no way she ever would've forgotten that striking white hair, the billowing coat, and that distinctive character TEN printed on his back.

* * *

She ended up back at school, still dripping wet, only just ahead of the rest of the students.

The coach was surprised, having expected a whole lot more from Karin Kurosaki. "Looks like you have some competition, Kurosaki," he said with a shrug. "Hitsugaya came in about half an hour ago. He's been sitting here waiting the whole time."

Karin looked down at the teenage boy sitting against the wall of the gym, looking bored.

"You! Toushirou, just then, you-" she started saying.

"_Hitsugaya came in about half an hour ago. He's been sitting here waiting the whole time." _

Karin stared at him for a moment longer. And then, "…no, never mind." And she lowered her gaze and turned away.

**Yeah, it has been a while, eh? Hope that nice long chapter makes up for it! *ducks the bombardment of solid objects flying in her direction* Okay, it doesn't excuse my slack attitude. I'll work harder next time, promise! Please review! ^_^ **


	5. Omelette Rice

**Whassuppp? Sorry for the long wait! (Feels like I say that all the time, huh? That's not good!) But thanks for putting up with me and hope you all enjoy chapter 5! Read and review! **

**Chapter 5- Omelette Rice**

Karin was annoyed.

"Gah! Screw it!" The Xbox controller went bouncing across the carpet.

"Hey! The game's not over yet!" Ichigo complained as his younger sister stomped off past the kitchen.

"Eh, Karin-chan? It's almost time for lunch!" Yuzu called out in alarm from where she had been curled up on the couch behind him, looking through a cookbook.

Karin ignored them, grabbed her baseball cap off the kitchen bench, shoved on her shoes and went out the front door, letting it slam behind her.

Ichigo frowned. "What's eating her?"

Yuzu sighed. "Yesterday, she lost to the new student when we were doing a cross-country run in PE. I guess she hasn't gotten over it."

"Really?" Ichigo grumbled and went back to the game. "Man, I was winning too!"

Yuzu shrugged and smiled. "Karin-chan _hates _to lose."

* * *

Hitsugaya was pissed off.

Swinging open the door to the apartment he was staying in, Matsumoto was sprawled out lazily on the floor, finishing off what looked like her seventh bottle of alcohol.

"…Matsumoto…" Hitsugaya felt his nerves tighten.

"Eh? Ah, Taichou, you're back!" The lieutenant happily sat up and spun around to face her captain. "Did you get the groceries?"

Hitsugaya lifted up the plastic shopping bag and threw it into her face. He exploded, "First, explain to me why _I, the captain, _have to do the shopping while _you, the assistant captain _lies around and does nothing?"

Matsumoto pouted as she pulled the bag off her head to rummage through the contents.

"And _also,_" he snapped, "why do you need another six-pack of beer? And those groceries? What are you going to make with peanut butter and potato chips and rainbow sprinkles? I mean, what on earth are we actually going to eat? Like, _food?_"

"Food?" Matsumoto said lazily. She brightened, "Oh no, Taichou, we won't have to worry about that! I'll just pop over to Orihime's next door and she'll have loads of food! Speaking of which, you haven't had lunch yet either, have you? You must be hungry, I bet Orihime can make something-"

"No thanks." Hitsugaya said quickly, his face turning slightly green. He turned to glare at his subordinate, "And if you get into any trouble, I'm not coming to save you!"

"Daww, all right then." Matsumoto pulled a face.

As Hitsugaya turned the door handle to leave, she called out after him, "But you're really missing out! Orihime's cooking is amazing! Really, you should try-"

He couldn't get out the door fast enough.

It wasn't until he had already walked down the street that he realized he was hungry.

* * *

Karin kicked the pebble lying on the ground. It bounced a few times and stopped, a few metres down the road. She walked up to it and kicked it again.

_I don't get it. How'd it happen? _

She _knew _that someone was there, someone had to have been there. And she was certain she hadn't been seeing things. _I mean, _as if _I would ever forget that boy! _She could recognize his white hair, and that haori of his, she knew the character TEN was on it. It was _his _number, she knew it! Because that hadn't been the first time he'd saved her, it hadn't been the first time she'd seen his back in front of her, his coat billowing.

Karin lowered her gaze, and felt her face heat up a little. She remembered the first time she'd discovered he was a shinigami, when that Hollow attacked, and he saved her, holding it back with just one hand, and all she could do was sit there and stare.

But…

"_Hitsugaya came in about half an hour ago. He's been sitting here waiting the whole time." _

_Dammit! _Karin scowled as she walked faster. Her frustration grew hotter with every step. And now, in addition to being angry and pissed off, her stomach was growling!

…_I'm hungry. _She realized pathetically.

"…Kurosaki?"

"Hm?" She turned around at the sound of someone else's voice, only to see the one boy who she didn't want to see.

"Sheesh! How many times do I have to tell you to call me _Karin?_" She complained.

Hitsugaya replied, "Sorry,"

They walked in silence for a moment; Karin looked down at the ground, investigating the way her shoes tapped on the path. For a moment, there was somewhat silence until both of them jumped at an odd-sounding grumble.

Karin's face heated. Hitsugaya turned politely away to hide his devilish smile. "Are you hungry, Kurosaki?"

She flushed. "Wh-what? A-and how many times do I have to tell you that my name is-"

They were interrupted by another growl.

Hitsugaya froze, mid-smirk, his face paling.

"That wasn't me!" Karin cried. "It was you, right? It was you, Toushirou! I bet you're also-"

Another rumble sounded, this time louder and more insistent than the first two.

They both stopped and were silent. Hitsugaya looked over at Karin, who flushed deeply and crossed her arms over her chest. It was taking all the strength he could muster to keep from smiling.

Karin looked away, face pink as she muttered, "You're haven't had lunch either yet, have you? …I'll shout you."

* * *

It was becoming increasingly hard for Hitsugaya to keep his cover and seemingly stoic expression.

He'd been here for almost a week, and having to live with Matsumoto had meant his variety of food had been limited, due to the fact that he was not about to swallow anything that came from Orihime's kitchen. Besides, being a shinigami meant that his knowledge of Japanese cuisine was very little, and all he'd been eating lately were things from the local convenience store- especially those oddly-packaged rice balls Ikkaku had told him about.

Nevertheless, he didn't think he had ever eaten anything so delicious before in his life.

Karin was staring in wonder. "Eh, I didn't know you liked _Omu-rice_ so much, Toushirou."

"Hm?" He looked up from his almost empty plate. Omu-rice, was it? He thought to himself. Well, there you go. He'd have to start eating it all the time now.

Karin laughed. "I didn't know anyone could like omelette rice so much. Haven't you ever had it before?"

"No," He answered, suddenly cautious of where the conversation was steering.

She shrugged. "Weird. Where did you come from anyway? It's strange having someone come to Karakura High who didn't grow up in this neighbourhood."

He was reminded of the expression on her face that first day, when she called out his name with that hope on her face. And then… he'd lied to her, and told her he didn't know her.

Hitsugaya didn't want to lie. Formulating a whole background and a fake history would be hard to maintain. But… what else was he to say?

"Oh." He kept his voice light and nonchalant. "Just somewhere you've probably never heard of. It's really far away, kinda empty, not full of people and buildings like here."

"Like out in the country somewhere?"

"Yeah," He let her believe it.

She finished her meal and got up. She looked back at him. "What, are you just gonna sit there? Let's go!"

* * *

The sky was always bright here. Always. And why was it, Karin wondered, whenever she came across him, they always somehow ended up here.

Just like four years ago, they ended up here, sitting on the rail on the hill, overlooking the way the sunrays were falling over the housetops.

"Hey."

"Yeah?" She didn't look at him, her gaze fixed on the skyline.

"Thanks."

"What for?"

"You know, lunch." He said.

She looked at him for a moment, an amused expression on her face. He watched as her face lit up with a cheeky grin. "You're welcome."

"I'll treat you back sometime."

"Oh. Okay." She looked away, embarrassed.

There was a short awkward silence. There were so many things Karin wanted to tell him, things she wanted to say. But it was hard; she didn't know how to start. All she knew, was she wanted to get it all out, because she was so sick of it. And this… sitting here with him. It was too much like before.

But over and over, she had to keep reminding herself that this was not the Toushirou Hitsugaya she had known. And at the same time, she felt a bit upset that she was sharing this spot, _his _spot, with someone other than _him_.

If it was him_, _she thought with a wistful smile, he'd be texting away furiously on his he probably wouldn't say much until it was time to go. And even then, he'd barely look at her; just walk off with a small wave. And for some reason, even though back then, the closest she could get to him was only so much and never further, she'd still watched as his retreating back disappeared.

_Pssh. _She sighed. She was such an idiot.

"Karin," he said suddenly. She started, partly because of the abruptness of his voice and partly because he'd actually said her name.

"What?"

Hitsugaya was looking pointedly away from her, straight ahead, as though afraid to dig into her privacy. He frowned slightly, voice a bit hesitant. "You… called me 'Toushirou' the first time we met… 'cause you mistook me for someone else who looked like me. This other 'Toushirou'…" He drifted off for a moment, unsure of how to continue. "…what was he like?"

Hitsugaya felt like a moron. What was he thinking? Why was he digging up the past? He just… he couldn't help himself, he was curious, that's all. It had bothered him. It had been four years, if he were to come back as a different 'Toushirou'; he had thought she would've forgotten by now.

But…

"_Your name's Hitsugaya Toushirou, right? You're the soul reaper that I met four years ago…"_

"Oh, him?" Karin pulled a face. "He was the most annoying, frustrating, irritating, uncaring jerk I ever met!"

…that wasn't exactly flattering.

Karin flushed furiously as she looked away to the side. "But… for some reason… I guess…"

Hitsugaya looked over at her as her voice started to get smaller and smaller.

"…I guess he was probably maybe kinda… like the first… boy I kinda maybe… _liked._" Karin's voice was stubborn and quiet and she muttered it out, looking away, face red.

Hitsugaya's jaw dropped and he almost fell off the rail.

"What?" Karin turned to glare at him. "Is it so hard to believe that I could possibly _like_ someone?" Her face was bright red, and she stood up, arms crossed angrily, embarrassed.

Hitsugaya coughed and tried to look indifferent, but it was difficult because at the very same time his own face was burning up. "No…"

She was stubborn as usual. And luckily, she couldn't see Hitsugaya struggling to keep his cover.

"I've got to go anyway!" She sounded cross, obviously at having blurted out such a personal fact to anyone else. "I… I'll see you at school!"

Hitsugaya maintained himself and smiled as pleasantly as he could. "…Sure."

And his polite smile made Karin even angrier. As she started to walk away, she pointed a finger back at him and yelled: "A-and don't think for a second that I'm going easy on you just because I bought you lunch! You're still going down!"

Hitsugaya sweat-dropped. Where was all this coming from? Was this Karin's natural defense-mechanism whenever she revealed a little bit of her heart to someone?

"You may have beaten me in cross-country the other day, but I'm definitely going to win in the athletics carnival next week!" She shouted before she ran off.

Hitsugaya didn't know what to think as he watched the young girl's retreating figure. Slowly, he stood up and turned towards home.

…_what's an athletics carnival anyway? _

He'd have to find out.

But first, he had to learn how to cook omelette rice.

**Once again, I. AM. SO. SORRY. for the loooonnngg absence of updates. Yes, it was entirely my fault for procrastinating and being lazy and uninspired. I'm on holidays now, so I hope to make up for it! Thankyou all for putting up with me! Please review! ^_^ **


	6. Is that the fastest you can run?

**Ahem. **

**I am really, really, really infinitely desperately sorry for the long absence of updates. I AM SO SORRY! School's finally over for the year and I promise I'll do my best to write more often. Also I've just managed to finish my NanoWrimo barely alive, so hopefully I can turn to writing this story now. **

**So anyway, I am very very sorry and I hope that this chapter may be able to make it up to you somehow.**

"Taichou!" The sound of heavy footsteps stampeding down the hallway. "Taichou!"

The white-haired shinigami captain grumbled as he burrowed down deeper into his blankets and held his breath, pressing hands over his ears in an attempt to drown out the annoying lieutenant's voice.

"Taichou!" She shouted yet again, the footsteps making the floor beneath him tremble.

"Shut up," He complained, his voice muffled.

"Captain!" And suddenly the blanket was swept clean off his face, the sunlight streaming into his eyes so bright that he squirmed and rolled over onto his stomach in attempt to block it.

"Leave me alone, Matsumoto!" He ordered, but instead the assistant captain grabbed him by both shoulders and heaved him out of bed. He was stunned and was about to yell curses at her when suddenly she pulled out clothes from nowhere and threw them into his face.

"Huh?" He looked at the clothes.

"You're the one who told me to get you up early today!" Matsumoto said huffily. "It's the athletics carnival, remember?"

**Chapter 6- Is that the fastest you can run?**

_All right! _Karin cheered to herself as she ran down the road to school, dressed in her PE uniform, her hair tied up in a short ponytail. Her backpack slung over her shoulder lightly hit her with every leap she took, making a steady beat that she ran in time to.

There was absolutely no way she was going to lose today. And especially not to that imposter!

"Oi, Karin!"

She turned her head to see Jinta Hanakari running along beside her, an arrogant smile on his smug face.

She rolled her eyes. "Jinta."

"You better not get your hopes up today," he bragged, "'cause today I'm definitely gonna win!"

She snorted. "Maybe in your dreams!"

As they headed towards the large oval beside the school, they passed the old ghost seated at the bus stop.

"Morning, Gramps!" They both chimed in unison.

In reply the ghost wrinkled his nose at them and opened his mouth to tell them he was not even seventy, but they had already rushed past. Neither of them noticed the last fading link on his chain of fate.

* * *

The roar and excitement of the students gathered on the oval was contagious. A hundred or so high-schoolers decked out in their sports uniforms, waving flags and banners, cheering and shouting for their classes and friends.

Hitsugaya looked around in disdain and then sighed to himself.

"_You may have beaten me in cross-country the other day, but I'm definitely going to win in the athletics carnival next week!"_

How did he, a high-level soul society captain end up stuck in this ridiculous event?

Still… he snuck a look at the cheerful Karin Kurosaki standing nearby talking excitedly to a group of her friends, it was best that he was near by in case anything might happen. Thinking back to that disaster on the bridge last time, he shuddered when he thought of how close he came to revealing who he was.

This time though, he was definitely prepared.

The first event was the 100m sprint. Cinch, he thought to himself. As he and the other competitors trudged up to the track, he caught Karin staring at him. He turned to give her a quizzical look and her stare turned into a glare, before she turned away stubbornly, her face turning pink.

Karin stretched her arms up above her head as she stood in front of the starting line.

"Karin."

Surprised, she turned her head to see him looking at her.

He smiled pleasantly at her. "Good luck."

Her face heated up and she was suddenly at a lost for whether she should shout at him or thank him. While she was still flustered from his smile, the gun was fired and the runners all took off down their tracks.

"Hey!" She cried, darting off late after the others.

Hitsugaya didn't look at her, he was up at the front.

Karin scowled. _That sneaky little- _

Even though her start had been late, she gritted her teeth and dug in, pulling ahead of all the others until she and Hitsugaya were neck and neck.

"That… was a dirty trick!" She snapped.

"…what are you talking about?" He asked calmly and ran even faster.

Struggling to catch up, she argued: "You know what I'm talking about!"

"You really shouldn't talk when running," was his only reply and then he sped ahead even further and crossed the line with hardly any effort at all.

* * *

Karin was frustrated.

"What's wrong, Karin?" Yuzu asked, "You've been winning so many events!"

"…not enough apparently." she muttered in reply, shooting a lethal stare at the nonchalant white-haired boy.

The sun was already high in the sky, slowly turning into afternoon. The athletics carnival would be drawing to a close soon after the final event- the cross-country run. Karin had participated in almost every event so far, in particular the running events- at the least all of the ones Hitsugaya competed in.

Hitsugaya had won the first one- 100m. She'd managed to regain her pride by just beating him in the 200m and the 400m. He'd pulled ahead again in the 800.m. That meant that the last cross-country run would be the deciding factor over who won.

_But… _Karin glanced at the white-haired boy standing by himself watching the javelin event. _How did it all end up being a competition? _

She lowered her gaze and flushed. It was because of what happened last week, that odd meeting and bonding over a lunch of Omelette Rice.

"_You… called me 'Toushirou' the first time we met… 'cause you mistook me for someone else who looked like me. This other 'Toushirou' …what was he like?" _

It was probably really stupid in the first place. She hadn't seen him in four years. No doubt her memory had probably faltered a bit and maybe what she remembered about him was far apart from the truth. _It was just some stupid schoolgirl crush. _She consoled herself. Besides, it wasn't like he would remember who she was.

She still wondered if she had been seeing things the other day, she swore that she'd seen the real Hitsugaya Toushirou- or at least his back with its familiar number ten on his captain's haori.

"Karin! Karin!" Yuzu was saying. "Aren't you going to compete in the last race? They're calling people up now."

"Huh? Oh, yeah." She got to her feet and headed off towards the starting line.

"Good luck, Karin!" her sister cheered, waving. "Do your best!"

She smiled back at her and then went to stand next to Jinta, who was not in the best mood having lost all the running events so far.

This time, she focused and refused to be distracted before the race started. As soon as the gun was fired, she flew off down the track as fast as her legs could carry her, staring only straight ahead, refusing to look back and check how close _he _was.

"Why do I even bother?" One of the runners complained as he watched Karin and Hitsugaya racing way ahead. "We already know one of those two are going to win!"

"Shut up!" The fiery red-haired boy snapped before he ran even faster to catch up.

* * *

Running round the oval, she started to feel a little uneasy. Karin looked around her, but there didn't seem to be any unusual spiritual pressure in the air.

The route stretched down the path, past the bus stop and down the road, past the bridge and then all the way down a hill back across the field. She meant to look for the old ghost sitting at his usual spot and maybe say hi, but she suddenly saw a flash of white speed past her, and knowing it was Hitsugaya, she scowled and ran faster.

Even if she had looked at the bus stop, it would've been empty.

Hitsugaya was tired. _Damn this stupid gigai. _He could totally have run faster if he wasn't carrying all the extra weight of a body around. Heck, if he was in his shinigami form, he could have used shun-po and he would've been finished already! Obviously though, it wouldn't exactly have been fair.

He slowed suddenly as he felt something odd in the air, making his skin crawl. It felt a bit like a Hollow, but its pressure was muffled, hidden so that he couldn't quite tell where it was. He couldn't let Karin know that he had noticed something, so he bit his lip and kept running, but the unsettling feeling rising up in his stomach kept growing.

That's when she felt it. It sounded like footsteps behind her, but turning her head it wasn't another runner. The footsteps made the ground beneath her tremble, and she became more scared as she looked behind her again, but she couldn't see anything at all, there was nothing there!

Still the thumping grew louder and seemed closer and one more time she turned and glimpsed it. Its form was unclear, but it was there. She just managed to see its shape coming closer, a huge Hollow stomping after her.

She almost screamed, but managed to hold her tongue.

Karin stopped and stared around her, but once again, she had lost it. She didn't get it at all, how could it move so fast? And why did its spiritual pressure jump up and down- one moment she could sense it and the other moment she couldn't. It was like this Hollow could camouflage and manipulate its own spiritual pressure.

The fear grew in her. It was like it was following her specifically, with every step she took, it took two giant ones, the earth shaking. Casting a desperate backwards glance, she was grateful at least that there was nobody in sight, nobody else could get hurt.

Then she remembered Hitsugaya up ahead of her. She could see him just up ahead, running along without any idea of the danger behind him.

"Crap!" She shouted as an invisible force knocked her over so that she tumbled onto the ground. Scrambling up to her feet, she could just make out the fuzzy outline of where the Hollow was. _Is this how Yuzu normally sees Hollows? _It was near impossible to attack or avoid it; it was just so… unclear!

Hitsugaya turned when he heard her shout. Karin was getting to her feet, wiping the dirt from her face.

"What are you doing?" He called out to her.

She turned to him and yelled, "Shut up and mind your own business!" _What the hell would _YOU _know? _

She felt another huge force sweeping her, like a Hollows arm crushing into her chest, pushing her back. She fell to the ground again and coughed painfully, the wind knocked out of her.

…_stupid Hitsugaya! _She thought bitterly. What would he know? He was useless, he couldn't do anything! He was nothing like the shinigami she had met four years ago.

She managed to react fast enough to another blur of movement coming from above her and darted out of the way. Looking down at herself, she noticed the dirty stains on her legs and arms and clothes from falling over.

Karin kicked up a huge mound of dirt from the ground with her shoes and sent it flying straight where the Hollow was. The dirt shattered and spilt all over its form, bouncing off its skin. At least she could see where it was at the moment, she thought, but the dirt wasn't staining him. She guessed she would have to make the Hollow take a stumble to the ground itself to mark him enough to see.

"Karin!" Hitsugaya shouted, running back towards her.

"What are you doing?" She snapped, barely looking at him, instead glaring upwards at where she thought the Hollow was. "You're running the wrong way, stupid!"

"You're the one going the wrong way!" He shouted back, "the track is _this _way!"

Without another word he reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her behind him as he ran on down the path.

"H-hey!" She wasn't sure if she was protesting because of the Hollow chasing after them or the because he had touched her.

"Is that the fastest you can run?" He said, his feet pounding heavily against the path, forcing her to sprint to catch up. "You're no competition at all!"

She stared wide-eyed at him, unable to see his face. She looked down at where he was holding onto her hand now, pulling her along with him. He was running fast and glancing back behind her, Karin wondered if he had actually known there was something behind them.

Suddenly, they both felt a huge force hitting them hard and throwing them to the ground.

Hitsugaya looked completely lost. "What happened?"

"That's what I've been trying to work out!" Karin jumped to her feet and glared up at the towering blurry figure in the front of her.

"Karin!" He shouted again, "Forget about whatever it is! Just run!"

She was stunned for a moment. Usually, nobody else really told her to run from whatever it was; she was the one who told them to run. It was like… Hitsugaya cared about what might happen to her.

"Come on!" He shouted, and went to grab her hand again and drag her further down the road. She visibly flinched as he touched her hand again; he wondered what was wrong with her.

The Hollow suddenly made a loud screech and came barreling over, falling face first into the ground, Hitsugaya and Karin just managing to avoid being flattened.

Then she felt it. An immensely familiar spiritual pressure falling over her, making her heart hurt.

What was it that had knocked the Hollow over?

"Karin?" Hitsugaya asked from beside her.

She didn't answer, instead staring up disbelievingly at the white-haired figure floating in the air above the Hollow.

The Hollow stumbled to its feet, roaring angrily, its once clear body now half-caked with dirt. It launched itself at its attacker, screaming the whole time.

"Karin," Hitsugaya tugged insistently at her hand. "Let's go."

How many times had she daydreamed that he might be holding her hand and saying those exact words? But…

Karin stared up at the figure in the air, holding back the Hollow with his sword. He wore a shinigami's uniform and a captain's haori. She couldn't see the back of it, but she already knew what number it would have.

He held back the Hollow's force with his sword and then glaring ferociously at the monster, pushed forward and spinning the sword out of its grasp, slashed at the Hollow so that it recoiled and screamed in pain.

The shinigami leapt forward at the Hollow again and swung his sword to hack through its mask. The mask cracked first into two pieces and then four, before it all crumbled and fell, dissolving right before it hit the ground.

She stared wide-eyed, disbelieving.

He calmly returned his sword to its sheath and tucked his hands into the sleeves of his shihakusho.

"Toushirou…" Karin stared.

He seemed to just notice that she was there and stared down at her, his icy blue-green eyes piercing through her.

His gaze was harsh, a frown creasing over his eyes. "…who are you?"

Her heart fell so much it hurt.

It was like… after so many years… after looking for him for so long, wanting to meet him again…

It was like she had finally found him, just to lose him again.

**By the way, Jinta won the cross-country race. Sorry for that horrible ending and the confusing chapter altogether. Yeah, I know heaps of it doesn't make sense. But don't worry, as I'm sure you found out earlier, things will be revealed gradually. Man, I had a horrible time writing this, it was so hard! This is why I should not take month-long breaks between updating. **

**Once again, I'm very sorry for the long wait. Haha, I've been living and breathing off my NanoWrimo novel for the whole last month, so I'm still residing in the wrong world of characters you could say. Reviews would be greatly, greatly appreciated! **


	7. She doesn't have to know

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach! **

**Here's chapter 7! Sorry for the cliffy last time, haha! It's almost been like a YEAR since my last update. Kind of. Hope you've all had a good new year so far, and hope you get plenty more hitsukarin goodness in 2011! Read and Review! **

Karin had always thought it was pretty stupid to fall for a shinigami. After all, it was pretty obvious that there was no way and shinigami captain and a human girl could be together.

**Chapter 7- She doesn't have to know. **

"So you dealt with that Hollow yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Karin-chan saw you, right? Does that mean I can finally see her too?"

Captain Hitsugaya turned to look at his lieutenant. "Why do you keep going on about her? Kurosaki's younger sister has nothing to do with me."

"But, Taichou, the reason we're here-"

"I'd prefer not to be here. I'll have tons of work piling up for me when I get back to Soul Society anyway."

"But…"

"This is just a hassle. This is the last time I do anything for Kurosaki, even if I might be slightly indebted to him for all his work with Soul Society."

"But you are friends with Karin-chan, aren't you?" Matsumoto said, pushing away the untouched paperwork in front of her.

Hitsugaya turned away and adjusted his captain's haori. "That's not important. A shinigami captain has no time to worry about such things."

* * *

"Where are you going, Karin?" Yuzu called out to her twin sister from the kitchen.

"Out." Karin's voice was hard to hear as it was already being drowned out by the sound of the slamming door.

"Geez." Yuzu turned back to the sink where she was drying the dishes and putting them away. "W-wait! Karin, are you coming back for lunch?"

It was still pretty early in the morning when Karin left the house. This time for sure, she thought wryly to herself, she'd definitely be back in time for lunch. There was no way she was meeting that Hitsugaya-look-alike for lunch again.

She slung the soccer ball in its net across her shoulder as she crossed the street and then ran down the little hill towards the playing field. She immediately relaxed as she got to the field, smell of freshly-cut grass and the view of the well-worn and battered soccer goal across from her. After all… there had been some things troubling her for a while now.

Yesterday… yesterday, Toushirou Hitsugaya had appeared.

Karin looked down at the soccer ball in front of her foot, which for some reason hadn't moved since she first got here. Frustrated, she booted it towards the goal with all her strength.

The ball hit the post and came flying back.

"…_who are you?" _

His eyes were icy-blue-green and harsh, his frown was stern. Just like she'd always imagined him.

But…

Karin ran to get the soccer ball, threw it up and then kicked it even harder towards the goal. It sped towards its target, and it wasn't like there was wind today or anything, there wasn't even a goalkeeper, so…

Why did it miss _again?_

Karin watched the ball hit the top post and bounce back to the grass, rolling to the side.

_I guess it is pretty stupid. _She sighed and forgetting about the soccer ball and goal and the post and everything for a moment, sat down and lay back in the grass, spreading her arms out wide.

Well, what had she expected, huh? Back then… _four years! _It's already been four years. Of course he wouldn't remember her. What had she been hoping would happen? She had known it from the beginning, she was stupid, misguided. It had just been a silly little schoolgirl crush.

But still… _I liked him. _

_I really liked him. _Karin rolled over and curled herself up, not caring if the grass messed up her hair and left stains in her clothes. The shinigami captain had been the first boy she'd ever liked, and well, unlucky for her, he was dead. It was probably just her silly childish thoughts back then, over-glorifying him and everything. So what? So what if he had come in and saved the day? So what if he played soccer for her time, so what if he protected her from the Hollow?

It was just that… for the longest time when she was little, nobody had ever done that for her, apart from Ichigo. Because she'd always been the odd kid in the class, saw things nobody else saw, tried her hardest to protect her friends and her classmates, 'cause it was only her. And even though she had all those friends, she couldn't beat the feeling of loneliness- of knowing about things nobody else did. But unlike Jinta and Ururu, she didn't have a seem to have a family to talk to like they did, even if she was grateful for having Urahara Shoten as a base.

The worse thing was… she'd spent so much of her thoughts and daydreams wondering about him and what happened to him. She'd spent so long looking for him. _Just as I thought,_ she thought ironically to herself, _I was just an idiotic kid. _It was just a childish crush.

But it still hurt. And Karin curled up tightly on the grass and tried not to cry, because she knew it was stupid and pathetic to like someone who didn't even remember her.

* * *

He had always remembered the way Karin had grinned at him that day, that afternoon, in the warm orange sunlight on top of the bridge. He'd always found that kind of strange, because he'd never met anyone who smiled so brightly, so carefreely without worrying about anything else in the moment. It was an interesting comparison to the temperamental scowl she usually had.

_It must be nice, _he had thought to himself, _to be human and alive, to be able to share what you're feeling just like that. _

* * *

"…Karin?"

Karin visibly flinched and sat up so fast her head spun. "Oww…" She closed her eyes and tried to get her visual orientation the right way up again. "What?" She snapped angrily as she turned to look at who had called her.

Her heart caught in her throat for a moment as she recognized the white hair and green eyes, she couldn't help the way her face was flushed and red, and the sudden hope that leapt in her chest.

And then, her face fell and changed back to her perpetual frown. "Oh. It's just you."

Irritated, Hitsugaya held back his growl. "…that's not a very nice thing to say."

She ignored him, sitting there, cross legged in the grass, frowning, her eyes lowered somewhere towards the ground. Hitsugaya stood there, beside her, not quite knowing what to say.

"…what's up?" he tried casually.

Karin looked up at him curiously for a moment, then reacted strangely and looked away quickly, her face heating up.

Hitsugaya noticed the funny look on her face and couldn't help feeling his own face warm up.

"…Jinta won the cross-country race." She said as if it explained everything.

"…really?" He said carefully.

"Yeah," she pulled her knees up and hugged them to herself. Scowling to herself, she wondered once again why they had to look _so alike. _

"Don't you think I'm weird though?" Karin wondered aloud.

_Yes, you're extremely odd. _"What do you mean?"

"I mean yesterday, I was running around, yelling and stuff because I could see something that no-one else could."

Actually, he could see the Hollow too, he had just been pretending. "Yeah, so?"

"Everyone puts up with me, but I bet they always think that I'm weird like that. Because it'd be really frustrating for them to have me screaming and yelling at them to get out of the way." She laughed and looked at him. "Even you thought I was weird the first day because I told you that I saw shinigami."

Hitsugaya felt uncomfortable, reminded of his lie.

"It doesn't matter," he declared suddenly, as if in attempt to make himself feel better. "It doesn't matter if you see things that other people don't. You're just one girl… you're already doing your best to protect and look after everyone else as best as you can."

She stared at him, wide-eyed.

Hitsugaya found her gaze making his face heat up and he struggled to stop himself blushing. What was he saying anyway? Where was all these comforting words coming from? Why was he trying so hard to make her feel better?

Bothered by it all, he walked off towards the soccer ball lying to the side of the goal.

Karin blinked. "You know, you're the first guy who's ever told me that. Nobody else really sees it that way, or understands it."

Hitsugaya tried to swallow back the sinking feeling in his stomach. He kicked up the soccer ball with his feet and caught it in his hands. "This is yours, right?"

_Of course it's hers, moron._ He scolded himself. _What are you trying to do, change the subject? _

He kicked it towards her and she caught it easily before standing up. It was so familiar to watch him with the soccer ball; it only made her feel worse inside. She wasn't to know, but he was thinking the exact same thing. He was treading on dangerous ground and he was scared of making a mistake, of mixing up the ridiculous lies he'd conjured.

"Aren't you going to kick it?" He asked, nodding his head towards the goal.

Karin stood at the middle of the field, the goal stretched out in front of her. She looked down at the soccer ball in her hands, and frowned as she thought of the times she'd missed it before. She tightened her fingers on it, her thoughts drifting off to the _other _Hitsugaya, the one she liked, the one who once told her a similar thing, in the middle of a soccer game.

Maybe it really was stupid.

She'd seen him again yesterday, after so long. Of course he didn't remember her. It didn't help how it still hurt to think about him.

Hitsugaya stood to the side, his arms folded across his chest, frown on his face. "Just kick it, will you? And cheer up, geez. Just because Jinta won the cross-country race doesn't mean you won't run faster than him next time!"

She looked at him in surprise. Was that supposed to be a round-about way of cheering her up?

She couldn't help but hold back a little smile. What did this guy know? Did he really think it was about Jinta and the cross-country race? This guy really was a weird one. Not only didn't he mind about her strange tendency to see and attract Hollows and ghosts, but he had even risked his life to try help her yesterday, even though he didn't know what was going on.

She had thought that was odd yesterday, the only boy she'd met who had grabbed her hand in an effort to pull her away to safety.

"Toushirou!" She shouted.

"Huh?"

She grinned. He stared.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but thank you for looking out for me yesterday!"

"What?" Hitsugaya asked, not exactly sure what she was thanking her for because all he was seeing was her bright cheerful smile, such a contrast from her usual frown. It made him feel the strangest sensation in his chest, because it was the first time he'd seen her smile like this again since he'd returned to Karakura.

Karin turned her attention to the soccer goal and kicked the soccer ball with all of her might. This time, it flew straight into the middle of the net.

* * *

Back at the apartment, Hitsugaya sighed. He could tell that Matsumoto was out, probably over at Orihime's, cooking up God-knows-what for lunch.

_I need to get out of this gigai_, he thought absentmindedly as he reached into his pocket for his gikongan. He watched the exact copy of himself standing opposite him, dressed in casual human clothes.

"Oh yeah, Pupples?" Hitsugaya addressed the gikongan.

"Yes?" The Hitsugaya gigai looked right back at the captain.

"Thanks for pulling Karin away from the Hollow yesterday. You did really well; I don't think she noticed that you were a different person."

"She still saw _you_ though, didn't she?" Pupples, the third-most-popular gikongan model answered.

"Yeah, but that can't be helped. I'll be more careful from now on."

He had to be careful, very careful. Don't mix them up, he begged himself, don't mix them up. _I'll keep them separate; keep them completely apart from each other. _

He was a shinigami after all, not just a shinigami, but a captain. A captain could not be spending all this time with a human, gallivanting around Karakura pretending to be a student of the same name. A captain had to fulfill his duties all the time, had to be stern and in control at all times. He didn't mean to hurt Karin's feelings like that yesterday by pretending he didn't know her.

A shinigami captain really should not get so involved with humans. He didn't know how many rules he was breaking, but he wouldn't get caught. It's okay, he had thought to himself, I'll just be someone else. _I'll be a different Hitsugaya, not me._

_And she doesn't have to know. She doesn't have to know at all. _

Because a shinigami captain shouldn't be so concerned about matters of the Living World… and of the heart.

**Please review! I'm not very happy with the chapter, but I'll keep doing my best and do better next time! I have some good ideas for the rest of the fanfic, but at the same time I keep thinking about how I've chosen such a terribly difficult situation to pull off and every chapter, I keep digging myself into a hole. Pupples is the third-most popular soul candy, according to the volume 2 of Bleach. Sorry again for the lack of updating and the long wait. Sigh… I need encouragement… reviews are always appreciated! **


	8. Spot the Difference

**Hi everyone! Despite popular belief, I am not dead. But yes, it has definitely been a while. Sorry for the long wait, I've had no time for anything apart from piano practice and schoolwork these days. And yeah, fanfiction has gone down pretty low on priorities at the moment, and I'm kinda over the Bleach fandom now. The last time I actively pursued Bleach was on hearing about the new hitsukarin episode 316. (I know, right? Who else screamed and fangirled/fanboyed?)**

**Anywho, enjoy your long overdue chapter 8! **

_I'll keep them separate; keep them completely apart from each other._

_I'll be a different Hitsugaya, not me. _

**Chapter 8- Spot the Difference**

"Toushirou!"

He turned to look behind him, but he already knew who it was. Who else would so blatantly call him by the first name?

He stopped. Karin was running down the path towards him, soccer ball in its net slung over her shoulder.

It was early morning. Sunlight was spraying down over Karakura town, and it was quiet, the town still in the process of waking up. Karin was dressed in her school uniform, the ribbon tied badly.

"Morning!" She said cheerfully.

For some reason, Hitsugaya found it hard to reply. "…hey." He finally managed to speak.

Despite their bad start at the beginning of the year, somehow they had progressed to friends. Karin, she… she was smiling again, that carefree spirit of hers just like he'd always remembered it. It kept reminding him of that first time he'd met her, the odd incident of soccer. And she hadn't changed at all, albeit a little grumpy every now and then, due to his sharing the same face as the one boy she'd maybe kinda liked.

That was something that kept bothering him too. Just how well could she possibly remember someone from all those years ago?

And she talked, all the time. She talked about her family, about Ichigo and Yuzu and her stupid father. She talked about Jinta, about Ururu and Urahara Shoten. She talked about seeing ghosts and spirits, about fighting Hollows, about being different from everyone else.

And he… couldn't say anything.

And the more she shared, the more he felt like a liar, because the truth was, he already knew.

And even though he had started off trying to act like someone else with his carefully-placed polite smiles and formal mannerisms, they quickly began to overlap with himself.

Hitsugaya sighed to himself. He really wasn't an actor.

The path to school was one he'd walked before, but not with Karin. He looked over at her; she was trailing behind him a little, waving at someone at the side of the road. It was an old ghost sitting at the bus stop.

For a moment, the old ghost's eyes met his and he froze. Of course the spirit could tell that he could see him. Hitsugaya felt guilt.

Karin turned back to find Hitsugaya looking in her direction and she flushed, growing frustrated.

"...I'm sorry I see ghosts, okay?" She said defensively. "It's probably embarrassing for you to be seen with someone odd like me."

Before he could think, the words came out of his mouth: "For someone who doesn't like being able to see ghosts, you sure are considerate to them."

"What?" She blinked. "How would you-"

"Who knows?"

That made Karin stop.

Hitsugaya realized, with a start. _Crap! Crap, what did I just say? _

Looking at her, her face was stricken with an almost pained expression. _Of course. She remembers. _

"You-" she started, then couldn't continue.

"Yeah?" He tried to appear nonchalant. Damn, he knew he had to get rid of that stupid habit of his, if he kept slipping up like this, then she'd definitely find out-

"_Who knows?" _

She stood still, staring at him. And he was standing in front, looking back over his shoulder at her, the sun rising higher in the sky, lighting them up. And it was similar; he was so much like him, so much like the boy who she hadn't stopped thinking of, hadn't stopped searching for in all this time, and it caught in her throat, a sudden throbbing in her chest.

Then she looked back down at his Karakura school uniform and the blank expression on his face and knew she was only thinking too much.

_Of course not._

"Never mind." She said quickly and started to walk faster, not looking at him.

The rest of the walk to school was uneventful, both of them silent with words they couldn't say. But there was something really irritating Hitsugaya about Karin. And he knew he shouldn't say anything about it, because it would be too out of character. This Hitsugaya Toushirou wouldn't say anything, but the captain in him was just twitching in annoyance.

She didn't seem to have noticed.

Hitsugaya breathed out slowly as they came to the school gate. _Almost there. Just don't say anything, don't do anything…_

But Hitsugaya was a bad actor, and every time he was with Karin, his real characteristics spilled out. And he was a pedantic, orderly, organized, tidy and self-respecting shinigami captain and he-

"For crying out loud!" He snapped. "Don't you know how to tie a ribbon?"

"Huh?" Karin was taken aback.

And he dropped his school bag on the ground next to his feet and started to fix up the ribbon around the collar of Karin's school uniform.

"T-Toushirou?" Karin's face burnt bright red. "You're too close…"

Hitsugaya's face was also rising to an unnatural redness. "…shut up," he muttered. "It's not my fault if you can't even wear your school uniform properly."

Karin's face flushed even harder. "I know, but…"

"Karin-chan! There you are! You left early today, so I couldn't help you with your-"

Yuzu stopped and stared. Then a sly little grin slipped onto her face.

"-ribbon, but it looks like you've got things under control so I guess you won't need my help from now on…!" With that, Yuzu badly stifled a giggle and skipped off.

"Wait, Yuzu-" Karin turned to see Yuzu giggling madly as she left, already deep in conversation with Midoriko who seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.

Looking around her, she could see students coming in towards the school, some of them blushing and subtly trying not to look, while others were blatantly staring and whispering.

"Eh, I knew Karin-chan had a thing for Hitsugaya-san as soon as he transferred-" Yuzu's loud voice was drifting away.

Karin's face heated up so much that steam was rising. Flustered and embarrassed, she pushed Hitsugaya away and ran after her twin sister to class.

"That's not true!" She shouted.

Nobody believed her.

* * *

Eventually all the fuss died down in class. Jinta wouldn't go back to his seat without a dig though: "Sorry Karin, but I doubt any guy would go for you. Unless they're into men, you know."

"Don't listen to him," said Donny from beside her. "He's just picking a fight."

"Everyone knows you're a poor excuse for a girl," Jinta went on.

Karin trembled in anger.

"Karin," Donny warned, "Don't say anything."

"Yeah well," Karin retorted, "I don't think Yuzu's particularly interested in a boy who doesn't even have the BALLS to go ask her out, even after crushing hard on her for the last five years or so!"

Jinta's face flamed like his hair. "Y-you!" He immediately turned around to look desperately where his goddess was sitting at her desk in the front of the classroom, innocently writing up the homework. "…Take that back!"

Karin grinned, odds in her favor again. "No way!"

"HANAKARI! KUROSAKI! Stop disturbing the class! Hanakari, why aren't you in your seat?"

Jinta stomped back to his desk to sulk, Karin sat up straight and victorious, Donny face-palmed and Yuzu went on, oblivious to her role in the argument.

From his seat at the back, Hitsugaya hid a smile.

* * *

"Geez, why'd you have to do that?" Karin complained, as she kicked the soccer ball up in the air and caught it again with her foot. "Now everyone thinks we're together or something."

"Well, it shouldn't matter if it's not true." Hitsugaya said casually.

Karin frowned and looked down. "Yeah," she agreed. "I guess you're right."

Then she seemed to get angry and sent the soccer ball flying into the net with a smash.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow quizzically but said nothing.

Once she had calmed down and had retrieved the ball, she tilted her head and asked: "Toushirou, why don't you join the school soccer team?"

Hitsugaya almost swore out loud.

"What?" He tried to appear normal, unaffected. He gave a little smirk. "Why would I do that?"

She stared intently at him. "You can play soccer, right?"

He desperately combed his mind, trying to work out if he'd somehow shown any semblance of soccer skill since coming back to Karakura.

Unsure of how to proceed and if Karin was becoming suspicious, he decided to be honest. "A little."

She didn't notice his hesitation and laughed, throwing her arms behind her head. "That's a relief then! Our soccer team always needs new members!"

Somehow, this was sounding more and more familiar to him. He couldn't read her face at the moment and it troubled him. Didn't it… didn't it bother her as much as it bothered him? He didn't like this, treading on familiar ground again, for the second time today!

The more it happened, the deeper the pit in his stomach sank. Like the guilt was bubbling up.

"…why did you think I played soccer?" He asked carefully.

Karin paused. Then she flushed a little and looked away. "I don't know. It's stupid, really." Her voice fell away.

_It's not like it matters anymore. _

"A-Anyway," she forged on with an uneasy smile. "Did you play soccer back where you came from? Like on a team or something?"

"…no, not really."

She kicked the soccer ball over to him and he caught it, on instinct.

"Then how'd you learn? Who taught you?"

…_you did. _

* * *

He remembered sitting on the roof, overlooking the field where she practiced with her friends everyday. It's not like he'd ever wanted to play soccer before. He didn't really see the point. And even if he could, what would he do, start a Seireitei soccer team?

It had been an odd relationship to begin with.

There she was, asking him to help play on her team.

And there he was, him and his constant "Who knows?"

He never really played soccer before. All the little things he picked up, the rules and all of it, he learnt from watching her practice.

And even then, he'd never felt a real desire to play soccer.

That day, he hadn't really planned on turning up. He'd practically forgotten what day the match was on, conveniently forgotten to turn up. Because, honestly, what did he care about their little soccer team?

Was it by chance then? What was it that made him walk to the field that day anyway? And even if he showed up, he didn't have any real intention to play.

But then there she was, crouching on the ground, biting her lip to hide the pain. Holding onto her hurt ankle. And even though he was late and hadn't really planned on helping, she looked up and brightened, smiled that infectious grin of hers and shouted his name.

"_Toushirou!" _

It was then…

Watching her smile despite her pain. Seeing her push on relentlessly even though she was hurt.

He'd never wanted to play soccer so much before.

* * *

"Anyway, you should definitely join us," Karin smiled. "I'm sure you're halfway decent."

For some reason he felt offended at this comment. But of course, she wouldn't know that he was pretty capable at it. After all, he was not the Toushirou she knew.

"Maybe." He was non-committal.

She shrugged, juggling the soccer ball on her foot. Hitsugaya watched her, counting in his head.

One, two, three, four…

Ten, eleven, twelve…

It was already afternoon, the sun lighting up the sky behind them in an orange glow, the clouds a golden yellow.

"Hey, Toushirou?"

"Hm?" He looked up from where he was sitting down on the grass.

Karin stood there, ball tucked under her arm, one hand fiddling with her hair, looking coy. She frowned, her voice sounding uneven, as if trying to be indifferent:

"Did you ever like someone?"

Almost immediately, Hitsugaya's usually pale face burned. "What?" He spluttered, and tried to calm himself down. "Where… where did that come from?"

She looked at him with a scowl. "Well, I just figured that you know who I like, so it's only fair."

He frowned back at her. "Who you_ like_? I thought that was who you _liked_!"

Karin said nothing.

Hitsugaya sighed, reminded of the look on her face when he'd appeared before her as a shinigami the other day and told her he didn't know her.

"…you don't still like him, do you?" He said awkwardly. "…that guy who you say looks like me."

She looked at him, then shrugged. "Who knows?"

Hitsugaya stared. For a moment, sweat gathered at the back of his neck. Did she… _does she suspect me? _

Then she grinned. "And for the record, just because Yuzu and perhaps the rest of the school might have the wrong idea, I don't like you, okay? Not like that anyway."

She turned to leave.

Hitsugaya scowled to himself. For some reason, though he couldn't quite work it out, there was something wrong with Karin's logic. Especially if she still liked him. Or did like him. Or had liked him. Or…

Why was he over thinking this anyway? Why did he care?

It shouldn't matter to him whether she liked him or not.

Really.

He got to his feet and shouted out:

"And for the record, I'm not helping you tie your stupid school ribbon ever again!"

**Done! Just one thing to note: DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO TIE A RIBBON! Haha. Sorry for the really long wait. I'm finally on holidays, am on track with my novel, and have finished my final piano exam. So if all goes well, there should be another update this month. It's really pathetic, it's already July, and this is only my second chapter this year. Sorry, really sorry! **

**Anyway, this fic has really been hard to write, 'cause I kinda went in blindly with a really badly thought-out and barely planned plot. Still, I feel better now and kinda know where I want this story to go. So… it'll mainly be a bit light-hearted and funny like this chapter. Until next chapter then! Please view! **


	9. Things I want to tell you

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. And since Ichigo has turned into a power ranger that sticks to walls, I don't think I really want to. **

**Chapter 9- Things I want to tell you.**

Saturday morning was cool and clear, the town was silent as Hitsugaya walked along the road, gazing out over the sleeping buildings. The sky looked very pale and white, the sun seemed to be hiding for the time being, but he sure hoped that the sky would be blue today.

As usual, on days like these, Hitsugaya had to get out of the apartment and leave Matsumoto to her own devices. It was early, and he knew once Matsumoto rolled out of her bed, she'd try to force Orihime's newest cooking experiment down his throat- calling it breakfast.

He swallowed and tried to forget about the last time he stomached a 'nutritious dinner.'

Walking over the hill that overlooked the sleeping town of Karakura, he noticed the railing where he once used to sit and watch the sky. Of course, today there was only cloud. As he drew nearer however, he noticed that someone else was sitting there on the railing- back where he used to sit, their hands by their sides, their face turned up at the sky.

"…Karin?"

She turned to look at him, her eyes wide and surprise written all over her face. For a split second, there was this unreadable expression- hope maybe? - in her grey eyes before it faded away.

She smiled quickly. "Toushirou! Morning!"

He smiled in that polite way of his. "Hi."

But for a moment, she had wanted him to stare blankly before raising an eyebrow in an unimpressed way. She wanted him to be the Toushirou she'd stored in her memories.

Of course, she'd already known it wouldn't be him. But when she had turned to look, for a second there, she really thought it could be.

Neither of them had had breakfast yet, so they bought food from the bakery nearby and took it back up the hill. Karin looked cheerful as usual, running ahead of him to the railing before sitting down, the whole town at her feet.

"Do you come here a lot?" He found himself asking.

"Huh?" She flushed a little with embarrassment. "Yeah, I guess."

"Why?" He asked blatantly.

She almost choked on the piece of bread she was eating. She coughed and cleared her throat with difficulty, her face flushed pink.

Hitsugaya caught himself before he could think she looked cute with that flush across her cheeks.

Karin pulled an irritated face. "Just 'cause, that's why."

"Because…?"

She took a huge bite and chewed emphatically, indicating that she wasn't going to answer.

Hitsugaya was stubborn, as well as eager to annoy. "Because?" He pushed again.

She turned her face away from his and was silent, ignoring him.

And then finally, "It was _his_ spot."

* * *

"_Hey, you know what?" _Her voice from this morning echoed in his mind. _"See how it's all cloudy right now, and you can't see any sky?" _

"_Well, if you come here at night, there's the best view. Sometimes the night sky's really, really clear, and then you can see so many stars. It's pretty incredible." _

He hadn't said anything in response, just stared out over the city. The sun was starting the peek through the covers of cloud.

"…_he really liked the sky… I wanted to show it to him."_

The night air was chilly as Hitsugaya flew over the rooftops, his feet merely touching them to propel himself faster. He always felt so much lighter and freer without the extra weight of a gigai, and it had been a while since he'd let himself roam around like this, just as himself, as a shinigami.

It wasn't like there were any Hollows out tonight, he'd already checked his detector twice. Still, he had to avoid detection by anyone, ghosts or people with spiritual ability, so he carefully hid his presence and tucked away his reiatsu.

He could see all over Karakura from up here, the buildings and roads stretched out almost in a blue colour. Tiny lights from streetlamps and bedroom windows peeked out. He floated over the soccer field- empty, of course. Across from the field, he could see the hill and the railing where he used to sit. As he headed towards it, he realized somebody else was already there.

Karin Kurosaki looked very small from up here.

He wondered what she was doing out this late, and thought about how she might get cold out in the night like this.

* * *

Karin sat by herself on the railing overlooking Karakura town. She'd always thought how funny it looked from up here, how small her whole world seemed. But whenever she looked up, she'd be reminded of how big it really was.

'cause Hitsugaya was from far away, somewhere beyond that sky above her.

She sighed and stared down at her feet. Man, she was so stupid. Why did she have to do this?

Just because she kept coming here didn't mean that he'd be here. Surely she would know that by now. It had already been four years. Sometimes, she was stupid enough to talk to him, even though she knew he wasn't there, wouldn't be listening. There were always things she'd like to ask him- like what it was like in Soul Society and if he'd ever come back. She'd like to talk to him about Ichi-nii, about soul reapers, about soccer, about so many things.

She would like to tease him about being a hundred years old but still shorter than her.

_Stupid Toushirou._ She thought bitterly.

He'd only ever been here for a little while, but there was so much she wanted to tell him, so many things she'd like to show him.

She recalled how he stood there, looking back at her without recognition.

"…_who are you?" _

"STUPID!" She suddenly stood and shouted out into the night, her voice seemed to echo into the empty air, but she wasn't sure if she was talking about him or herself.

Stupid Toushirou. He didn't understand anything. Heck, he didn't even remember her. What the hell was she even doing here?

The town was completely silent, her outburst had floated in the stagnant air, then faded away into nothing.

"Hey, Toushirou," She spoke out conversationally, as if he really could hear her just like that. "You're a moron, you know that?"

Here she left him some space in case he answered.

"…yeah, I'm a moron too. I guess we match."

She sat and leant back to stare up at the never-ending sky, the stars looking like pinpoints of gold against a blue, blue sea.

"What do you think?" She said. "It's pretty cool, huh? I knew you'd like it."

* * *

It felt colder on a night like this.

"Isn't it a bit late to be out here by yourself?"

Surprised, Karin turned to look at the direction of the voice.

"Toushirou?" She jumped to her feet. "What are you doing here?"

He stood casually at the end of the road, his hands in his pockets, nonchalant expression on his face, the slight hint of a smirk on his mouth.

He shrugged. "Figured you'd be out here, after you mentioned it to me before. …you must really like him, huh?"

Karin stared and him, her face turning red. "N-no!"

"Whatever." He paused for a moment, as if considering what to do next. "…Come on. I'll walk you home."

She stared at him, her face still flushed. She pulled a face, and crossed her arms over her chest. "I can walk home by myself."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't be stupid. Let's go."

She glared at him.

"It's getting cold out here."

She held her glare for a moment longer before she sighed and relented. "…Okay."

Before she followed him down the road towards home, she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"Karin?" He asked. "What are you looking at?"

"…nothing." She ran to catch up to him.

* * *

From above Karakura Town, Hitsugaya watched as Karin and his gigai walked away together.

He waited until they were out of sight before lifting his head to stare up at the magnificent sky stretched out above him.

It was amazing. Underneath such a vast sky, Hitsugaya felt very small, as if he was only just a tiny part of this world. And he knew that beyond that sky was so much more that he could hardly begin to even imagine.

The stars, he thought, looked like tiny pinpoints of gold against a very blue sea.

"…_he really liked the sky… I wanted to show it to him."_

If he could tell her anything, he would thank her.

There had been something odd about watching her from above, watching and listening as she talked to him, not even knowing he was there.

Karin, and her wide grey eyes, staring up into the sky, the way the moonlight shone across her small face, her black hair falling away from her.

If he could tell her anything, he'd tell her that the sky looked amazing.

"_It's pretty cool, huh? I knew you'd like it."_

There was something about her bright voice, and the smile that lit up her face.

Hitsugaya was suddenly aware of his heart beating faster against his chest. Confused, he lifted his hands to his face, to find that his cheeks were warm against his cold hands.

Hurriedly, he turned and looked down along the road, searching, but Karin was already gone.

**Well… that was rather difficult to write. I hope you understand what happened in those last two sections in particular. I almost confused myself, geez. Anyway, I have finally gone back to reading Bleach since 459 came out. I know right, RUKIA'S BACK! I may now graciously take back that Ichigo power ranger comment I made at the beginning of the chapter, haha. **

**I hoped you liked this chapter! FINALLY, we got somewhere! It was taking forever to get to this point. Now we can get moving and I'm excited for what will happen next! Thanks for reading! Til next time! **


	10. Cliche sucks

**Blaaarghh. I'm so amazing at procrastinating. It's already 2012. Hahaha, you guys had to wait for half a year. Wow, I really suck. I'll try to finish all these fics before I stop writing here altogether. Thanks for all your reviews and support everyone! Hope you enjoy chapter 10!**

It was that time of year when girls giggled more often than not, when the simple glance of a male student would make them blush and look away. There had been an awful lot of gossiping and excitement in the air recently and nobody was immune to it. Not even Karin Kurosaki.

After all, wasn't it the ultimate Japanese schoolgirl dream to confess to the boy she liked on St Valentine's Day?

**Chapter 10- Cliché sucks.**

It was a reluctant Karin who found herself in the kitchen the day before Valentine's. Unfortunately for her, Yuzu was exactly the kind of girl who had been planning ahead for the event for the last month or so. As such, the kitchen bench was covered with all the ingredients needed for enough chocolate to open a factory, in addition to wrapping paper, cellophane and a variety of ribbons.

"…why am I here again?" Karin asked, her face scrunched up in disgust.

Yuzu was humming to herself as she tied her apron around her back. "What a silly question, Karin-chan! It's Valentine's Day tomorrow after all!"

"How does that have anything to do with me?"

Yuzu pushed an apron onto her twin sister. "You have to help of course! And besides, don't you need to give chocolate tomorrow?"

Karin scowled as she reluctantly tied the back of her apron. "I never give chocolate on Valentine's Day."

"But you have so many guy friends!"

Karin thought about her group of friends, the boys who she'd grown up with, the boys she'd always played soccer with. Her eyes narrowed. "I never make chocolate for them. I think I gave them some store-bought chocolate last year, but that's it."

"…boo, you're no fun, Karin-chan." Yuzu complained, as she opened a packet of cocoa. "Can you get me the molds from the drawer?"

Karin sighed and went to do as Yuzu asked.

* * *

"Taichou! There's something extremely important I need to talk to you about! It's imperative that you listen!" Matsumoto burst into the room, pushing the sliding door aside so quickly that it slammed into the frame and made the floorboards shudder.

Hitsugaya gave his lieutenant a withering look as he bent to pick up the papers that had flown all over the room from the shock. "What is it?"

Matsumoto slammed a magazine down onto the table in front of Hitsugaya. He looked down at the colourful glossy pages of the magazine- at the characters that burst out from them.

"Va- len- tine's Day?" He pronounced, frowning.

"Right!" said Matsumoto, straightening up to her full height before crossing her arms over her generous bosom. Her look was one of seriousness. "I found out about it just today at Orihime's, you're very lucky I rushed over straight away to warn you."

The Tenth Company captain scrutinized the colourful pages. "…I don't see how this affects me at all…"

In response, Matsumoto slapped her hand onto the magazine with such noise that Hitsugaya winced. "Look and memorize carefully, Taichou. You have to be able to tell the difference between these two photos here, see?"

He looked between the two diagrams on the pages, back and forth, not quite able to see the difference.

Matsumoto pointed at one then the other and declared loudly: "Honmei Choco! Giri Choco! Honmei! Giri! Repeat after me, Taichou, Honmei-"

They looked relatively similar to each other, in Hitsugaya's opinion. Both were obviously photos of chocolate. The first one was much larger, shaped like a heart and wrapped profusely with colourful paper and intricately decorated. The other one was smaller and plainer looking, but still had the same pink colour theme in wrapping.

"You must be able to recognize the difference," Matsumoto went on, pointing emphatically at the diagrams again and again, "Honmei, Gi-"

"Okay, okay!" Hitsugaya snapped. "I know, already. But you never ever explained what it means- what this Valentine's thing is!"

Matsumoto quietened down and then stared seriously down at her captain. "Right, listen up. Japanese people have this odd- all right, I admit, kinda cute when you think about-"

"_Matsumoto!_"

"-anyway, on February the 14th, Japanese girls have a custom of giving boys they know chocolate like those photos you see there."

Hitsugaya scrutinized the pictures, the scowl deepening on his face. "Yeah, so?"

"It's also the way that girls confess to the boy they like. So basically, depending on how she feels about you, you get one of these two types. Obviously, you can tell by how flamboyant the first one is- that's Honmei Choco- you give that to the guy you like. And the other one, well, that's for the poor guys that the girl feels sorry for and is obligated to give something to as well."

Hitsugaya sighed. "All right, all right. So why do I need to know this aga-?"

Matsumoto interrupted her captain with another loud slap to the table. Hitsugaya jumped and then fumed, "For God's sake, will you stop-"

Matsumoto's hand rested on the calendar page of the magazine where the very next day had been circled in bright red and decorated with hearts and bubble pink writing.

"Tomorrow." She said, leaning in closer to her captain, her eyes widening and voice dropping into a threatening tone. "It all happens tomorrow, Taichou, don't make a wrong move."

Despite the slight fear beginning to pick up in his stomach, Hitsugaya snickered and shrugged. "What's there to worry about? Nothing's gonna happen."

That night he went to bed with only the slightest amusement on the oddities of humans.

* * *

Karin rolled out of bed late. As she struggled to keep her eyes open, she could hear the footsteps around the kitchen downstairs, the voices of Ichigo and her dad in their early morning argument.

She had exhausted too much of her energy yesterday attempting to help Yuzu with the chocolates, but in the end it seemed that she was really only getting in the way. Apart from retrieving and putting away utensils and then doing the washing, all she had done was over-mix the ingredients and eating up the leftovers. Not that she minded eating up the left over chocolate that she'd accidentally left to solidify instead of pouring them directly into the molds.

"Karin-chan!" Yuzu was shouting at her from downstairs. Guess she hadn't left yet, then.

When Karin got to the kitchen, she found Yuzu amidst piles of cellophane, coloured plastic and coils of ribbon and string. Neat little bundles of obligatory chocolates were packed into light blue cellophane. In front of her Yuzu had two much larger chocolate hearts, one of which she was hurriedly wrapping up. Karin looked over her shoulder and tried to read the iced writing on it, but Yuzu quickly covered it up and blushed.

"So…" Karin said casually, "…I guess these are mine then?" She counted out five blue packages- Pinta, Usaka, Donny, Ryohei and reluctantly, Jinta.

_Well, isn't he lucky, he gets chocolate from both of us. _She thought wryly before turning to put them into her bag. "I'll see ya at school then-"

"Wait," Yuzu looked up, "You forgot one."

Karin blinked. "…no, I didn't. I have all five."

Yuzu's smile stretched almost from ear to ear. "Who's this one for then?" She was holding out a bright red cellophane bundle, obviously containing a large heart-shaped chocolate. It had been tied with pink ribbon, and carefully curled as well. Everything about it screamed HONMEI.

Karin's eyes narrowed. "That's not mine."

Yuzu pulled an innocent face. "What are you going to give Hitsugaya-kun then?"

"Who said I have to give anything to that guy? And I… I…" Karin's face heated up. "I don't even like him; he annoys the heck out of me!"

"…you guys aren't even friends?" Yuzu tilted her head.

Karin grumbled and reached out to take another blue package. "All right, all right, I'll bring him an obligatory chocolate too."

"But then I won't have enough." Yuzu countered.

Karin dropped her hand and looked at her twin sister who simply smiled sweetly back. How terrifying, Karin thought, that Yuzu could be so formidable while maintaining her innocent appearance.

Time was running out, and she needed to get to school now. She lifted her eyes to the ceiling and let out a sigh. Yuzu watched her with a half-smile on her face; she knew she had already won.

"…okay," Karin said with difficulty. "But… but I want to wrap it myself. And I need to use the icing."

Yuzu scanned the kitchen and seeing that there was no blue wrapping left over, smiled satisfactorily. "Sure thing."

Yuzu passed the pipette over and Karin sat down at the kitchen bench to think about what to write. If Honmei chocolate was supposed to mean true feelings, then what should she write? In all her life, she'd never really liked anyone that much to understand what it meant to confess to guy on Valentine's day. And the one boy that she had kinda maybe really truly liked… well…

If only she was giving chocolate to _that _Hitsugaya Toushirou. Then maybe she'd finally be able to tell him the truth. But _that _Hitsugaya was nowhere to be found. There was so much she wanted to say to him.

Karin's fingers tightened over the icing pipette as she stared down at the chocolate brown canvas.

Then she began to write.

* * *

It would be a lie to assume that only girls got nervous on Valentine's Day. That was far from the truth. Boys got just as nervous, whether it was from anticipation of a crush who may confess to them, or from fear of a stack of obligatory chocolates once again this year. Oh, and those unbelievably popular boys were terrified of drowning in a sea of chocolates (though how that was an unpreferable way to die is questionable).

Jinta Hanakari, for one, had been agonizing over this particular day for a long time. To say he hadn't been preparing for it would be a lie; in fact he'd been dropping many clues for Yuzu for the last couple of months. Yeah, he knew it, what a gentleman he was; now Yuzu wouldn't have to feel so shy or scared about it.

He had been very gracious about it, in fact. Just every now and then, sometimes in conversations, sometimes when walking her home, a comment: _"You know, if you ever wanted to give me Honmei chocolate, I'd accept it." _or _"Not that Valentine's Day is coming up anytime soon or anything, but it'd be nice to receive Honmei chocolate for once." _or his favourite, uber-casual one: _"I wouldn't accept Honmei chocolate from just anyone, since you know the girls are all over me and everything. But for you, Kurosaki-san, I could make an exception."_

So yeah, Jinta had been preparing for this day for a while, looking out not for himself of course, but for the best interests of Yuzu Kurosaki. Who for some reason, still hadn't arrived in class today.

She came in later than usual, along with her sister, and they quietly took their seats right before the start of class. Yuzu didn't look at him or at anyone else as they entered and Karin had an oddly irritated expression on her face.

When Jinta came back to the classroom after break, he noticed the blue package sitting on his desk. His heart rate picked up and he just about sprinted the remaining distance to his desk. But it was pretty obvious from the moment he picked it up that it was nothing but Giri chocolate. He hurriedly turned it around, trying to find out who it was from. Then he noticed the little tag stuck to the back: _To Hanakari, from Kurosaki._

* * *

Valentine's Day at school was a learning experience for Hitsugaya. He watched with some sort of trepidation and later amusement at the antics taking place throughout the school grounds. He found it interesting how guys were called out by specific girls who wanted to talk to them alone, the excited giggling and gossiping constantly present out in the hallway, the differently coloured assortment of packages found on desks and in lockers.

His logical mind divided the male population into two sorts- those who received Honmei chocolates and those who didn't. It was pretty easy to tell who was who. Those forever friend-zoned huddled together at their desks, comforting each other in their suffering.

He himself received Giri chocolate from the class representative and some girls in his class. He found that a surprisingly warm gesture considering how he'd only recently joined. But he was truly shocked when he found a couple of obviously Honmei choco packages slipped into his locker.

He looked through the names, but didn't recognize a single one of them. Who were these girls? They had written the numbers of their classrooms and year levels on the tags, but it didn't help to putting a face to the names at all.

That was something that truly puzzled him. …did they all do this? These human schoolgirls so easily throwing around their love like that, was it really possible to fall in love with someone they'd never spoken to, someone that didn't even know who they were?

"What's your problem?" Karin's irritated voice sounded from behind him.

Hitsugaya snuck a look at her, this one girl who seemed insusceptible to this lovesickness affecting all her classmates.

She was standing beside Jinta Hanakari's desk, and he was slumped over the table, obviously depressed.

"…Kurosaki… I mean, Yuzu, she… she only gave me a Giri chocolate!" Jinta mumbled into his desk.

Karin's frown deepened. "No way. How do you know it was her?"

Without replying, Jinta showed her the little blue package he had received and the tag attached to it. Karin took one look at it and punched Jinta aggressively in the arm. He recoiled and yelped: "What the hell was that for?"

"You're such a dolt! Yuzu didn't give you that, I did!"

"What?"

"You automatically thought it was Yuzu? How rude, my name is Kurosaki too!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think you would-"

"Don't give me that response! I can't believe I went to the effort of making handmade chocolate for you, of all people!"

"_You _made it, Karin, are you sure it's edible?"

"Did you really just say that?"

"It's just that every year before you always bought cheap stuff that- ow, ow, ow, let go!"

Karin was pulling angrily on one of Jinta's ears. He swiped angrily at her hand until she let go. Jinta pulled a face at his (violent) friend as he nursed his poor ear, and Karin crossed her arms and glared at him as she nursed her poor ego.

"All right, all right. Geez. I'm sorry." Jinta relented.

Karin's face was still unhappy.

Jinta looked up and gave her a smile. "Thanks, Karin."

Karin's face softened into sideways grin. "…you're half-welcome."

"What the hell, how can someone be half-welcome?"

And they were bickering again. Hitsugaya sat at his desk, and peeked at them from over his shoulder. And wondered what chocolate home made by Karin Kurosaki would taste like.

* * *

"Hanakari-kun!"

Jinta turned around as soon as he heard the sound of Yuzu's sweet voice, his heart jumped up in his throat as he stopped in the middle of the hallway to face her.

"I wanted to give this to you."

Jinta's heart soared as he saw the brightly coloured package in Yuzu's outstretched hands. It was large, wrapped delicately in pink paper and red cellophane, tied with blue and purple ribbons that dangled in curls.

Even though he'd prepared for this moment beforehand, he came out tongue-tied. "Um… oh. Th-thankyou, Kurosaki."

She only smiled as he took the package, it was surprisingly heavy. He wondered exactly what was in it, maybe she'd even written him a love-letter to tell him how she felt.

"C-can I open it?"

She nodded, her smile brightened.

Standing awkwardly in the hallway, he fumbled with the ribbons and the wrapping, until he could see the large chocolate heart resting on top of the pink paper. There was writing in white icing frosted over the top, in Yuzu's girly script.

_O-K-A-Y. _

OKAY?

Desperately, he tried to remember what the last thing he had said to Yuzu Kurosaki was. What did he say to her the other day, before they parted?

Another one of his great lines…? _"…you know, if you ever needed to, well, _practice_ giving out Honmei chocolate to anyone, you could practice giving it to me." _

Yuzu's chocolate said nothing but _OKAY_.

"Do you like it?" She smiled cutely, tilting her head to one side.

"…yeah. Thanks!" He replied.

He tried not to cry in front of her.

* * *

Karin Kurosaki was standing alone on the hill that overlooked Karakura, on the path that led home. She didn't seem to be in a rush or anything, just standing there, looking over the rooftops and the empty park, almost as if she was waiting for something, or someone. Someone who she'd been waiting four years for.

Of course, he wasn't going to turn up.

Hitsugaya saw her from the end of the road and found himself hurrying over to her. "Karin?"

She turned her head to look at him. "Oh, hi Toushirou."

"…are you heading home?" He asked.

She stared at him for a moment, her face twisted into an odd dissecting glare. Then she lowered her glance to her feet and said rather uncomfortably, "…I guess."

Hitsugaya stopped beside her, stood there and looked out over Karakura town as well. Karin's eyes drifted upwards from the ground and then over to the gift bag Hitsugaya was holding.

"What's that?"

"Oh. It's Valentine's Day chocolate."

Karin's face remained blank. "Honmei? Giri?"

"Both."

"I see." Karin frowned and for some reason, felt irritated. _What do I care anyway? _she scolded herself. "Well, anyway, I'm leaving." Her voice came out strangely loud.

"Okay... I'll walk with you," Hitsugaya offered.

Karin's frown only deepened. "No thanks, I'm in a rush." And before Hitsugaya could object, Karin had turned and was walking quickly down the road.

He'd hardly moved from his spot when Karin marched back, her cheeks pink and a scowl on her face.

"I lied." She said bluntly. "I wasn't actually walking home, I was waiting for you." And now she shifted her weight uncomfortably between her feet, and reached into her bag to pull something out. "I needed to give you something, but…" her gaze drifted down to bag Hitsugaya was holding, crammed with Valentine's day chocolate.

"…I changed my mind, I don't want to anymore," She snapped and turned.

Hitsugaya was the very picture of confusion. "Karin?"

At the sound of his calling her name, she froze and felt her chest hurt. Whirling around again, she glared at Hitsugaya as hard as she could, tried to shoot laser beams out of her eyes, striking him again and again.

Then she lifted up the package and threw it straight at him. Hitsugaya, shocked, fumbled and managed to catch it before it fell.

"But it's not like I want it so you might as well have it." And with that, Karin marched off again, this time with no intention of turning back.

He watched her disappear into the distance before looking down at what he'd caught. Almost immediately the warning signals went off in his head. It was large, wrapped in red cellophane and tied with ribbon. The base was obviously heart-shaped. Everything about it screamed HONMEI.

He wouldn't have to had memorized Matsumoto's magazine to know, it was so obvious. Suddenly, his face was burning and his fingers felt sweaty under package, and his heart, man, his heart, suddenly decided to sprint a marathon.

Everything about her suddenly burst into his mind, like little flashes of light, bursts of colour, the sound of her voice, her laughing face, her scowling face, her stubborn frown.

Hitsugaya's heart was beating uncontrollably, like a drummer on high. Matsumoto had said not to take Honmei chocolate lightly, to avoid accepting it fully, especially if he didn't return the girl's feelings- who knew, it could lead into multiple mishaps later on. But, but…

But this was Karin Kurosaki.

And she… to Hitsugaya, she was different.

He hadn't expected this, hadn't expected it at all. He knew that she had liked him, but that was the him of four years ago, that was the shinigami him, the one whose life wasn't a whole fabricated lie.

He recalled Karin sitting out on the rail at nighttime, looking out at the stars talking to him as if he was still the same Hitsugaya as he was before. The way she'd looked both small and defiant, how she was someone who he both wanted to protect and fight back to back with.

She… if she liked him, if she really confessed, would he respond…?

He liked the sound of her laugh most of all, the wicked grin that crossed her face sometimes, the glint in her dark eyes. He gulped thinking about it, and somewhere deep down he already knew the answer.

His mind was racing, his heart was racing, even his fingers were slightly shaking as he untangled the ribbon and opened the cellophane wrapping. There was a large chocolate heart lying there in the cellophane, Karin's writing iced on in white.

The words were large, messy and blunt:

_JUST FRIENDS. _

**Interaction between Jinta and Karin is gold. They're so easy and fun to write! Random line that was cut out from this chapter was "I hope you get food poisoning and die." (Karin to Hitsugaya.)**

**I actually started this chapter about a week before Valentine's Day, and what do you know? It's been over a month since then! So sorry for the incredibly long wait, you've probably all given up and forgotten about me! Anyways, uni is a hassle, but I'll do my best and try to finish this fic this year! Please keep reviewing and supporting me! emichii. **


	11. There is always a School Trip

**Woohoo! Another chapter! IMPOSSIBLE. …it still took half a year to write. What the hell is wrong with me? OTL**

**Please read, enjoy and review! emichii.**

Anyone who has ever read a shoujo manga or watched a shoujo anime knows. There is always a school trip. How else does the lackadaisical writer find such prime opportunity to push the romance onto the unsuspecting hero and heroine?

**Chapter 11- There is always a School Trip.**

The early morning sky was still dark, only just beginning to lighten up. Even so, the noise and excitement was on record-high in the Karakura High carpark. The bus was pulled over; the storage compartments opened and stacks of luggage piled up outside them, ready to be packed inside. The first-year students were milling around, gathered in their respective friendship groups, talking excitedly amongst themselves.

"Eeehhh, I'm so excited!" Yuzu was squealing. "Our very first school trip!"

Karin was not impressed. Her frown was so deep that the wrinkles between her eyes seemed carved in. "It's not even five in the morning yet. It's way too early to be talking so loud." She sounded in pain.

Yuzu turned to look at her twin sister. Instead of turning her volume down, she grabbed Karin's arm and burst out, even more excitedly: "But don't you know what happens on school trips?"

Karin glared at her sister through the thin slits of her eyes. God, she could hardly keep her eyes open. Through her tired vision, she saw Yuzu talking quickly, her hands animated.

"-and then everybody gets paired up! It's just the perfect time for confessions, y'know!"

Karin pulled a face. "I think you've been reading too much manga. What was it this time? Furuba? Love-Com?"

Yuzu ignored her and kept talking- but how _romantic _the atmosphere of a class trip is, and it's _just the perfect_ follow-up to Valentine's Day last week, and White Day coming up, and ohmygosh, did you know that Maki-chan is so totally going to tell Take-kun that she likes him except since Miu-chan likes him too, she's going to beat her to it, unfortunately since-

Karin sighed and tried to sleep on her feet.

* * *

Hitsugaya Toushirou had fought Hollows and battled Arrancars. He could hold his own in sparring matches, he'd graduated from the shinigami academy with the top honours and he was the youngest Shinigami Captain ever. But… he'd never done anything like this before.

Hitsugaya breathed in and out and tightened his grip on the wheeled suitcase he was pulling behind him. His brain raced through every single possible thing that could go wrong on this trip, and damn, there were a lot. He could feel the weight of his gikongan in his pocket, but still he reached down to check it was there before letting his shoulders relax minimally.

Matsumoto had been too excited this morning. She sounded almost like a worried mother, the way she had been fussing over him.

"_Have you packed everything? Got Gikongan? Paperwork?"_

"_Matsumoto, that's your job-"_

"_Hahaha, I was just joking! No really-"_

Hitsugaya let a relenting smirk come onto his face. Geez, that Matsumoto. But somehow, seeing her fuss all over him had made him feel a little better about the upcoming journey. Maybe he didn't mind being mothered sometimes…

"…_oh! I just wish I could go on this trip!" _

Of course she only had ulterior motives.

* * *

Karin found herself packed tightly with her classmates into the bus, between the window and Yuzu. Midoriko sat in the seat in front of them; she was already turning around, leaning her arms over the back of the seat, gossiping enthusiastically with Yuzu. Jinta was sitting behind, trying to butt into the conversation while appearing casual and cool in order to impress his crush.

Karin exhaled a world-weary sigh and tried to block out the noise, instead focusing on the dull changing scenery outside. The world outside seemed very flat, a pale-coloured landscape that stretched on forever, with tiny block-like commercial buildings and metal bridges and railings that looked as thin as pencil-lines from where she sat.

It was going to be a long journey, but she'd rather not interact with anyone, she didn't mind staring out the window the whole time. It sure would beat having to look at _him_.

_Him _was sitting at the very back of the bus, what, did he think sitting there would make him look cool or something, bastard? Probably sitting there all high and mighty, looking down over everyone else, with that unimpressed look on his face, arms folded in that pretentious way of his.

It was killing her to know exactly what he was doing, whether he really was sitting like that, but Karin refused to look. That would be losing, and Karin hated to lose. She hadn't been ignoring him for the last week to give up like that.

The man in question, however, wasn't aware there was a competition going on. Hitsugaya sat at the back of the bus, half-listening to the endless chatter of the boy sitting next to him. The endless talker was called Tomo and for the last week and a half had decided to adopt Hitsugaya as a reluctant best friend, due to his athletic ability and cool demeanor.

Hitsugaya nodded every minute or so to give the impression that he was listening, but in actual fact, he was completely unimpressed, arms folded, looking down at everyone in the bus, wondering what he'd got himself into again. He hadn't seen _her_ in a while, he realised. Had she been ignoring him?

His gaze drifted towards a certain girl seated in the middle of the bus, leaning against the window, seemingly isolated from the chattering friends surrounding her. Come to think of it, it had been almost exactly a week since he'd talked to her, not since… not since-

Hitsugaya's face reddened.

Not since she'd given him that Valentine's Day chocolate.

Speaking of which, despite the fact that it had JUST FRIENDS written all over it, Hitsugaya had carefully wrapped it up again in all its red cellophane glory and its pretty pink ribbon, brought it home and then kept it on his desk for five days without eating it. It wasn't until Matsumoto threatened to eat it herself that he snatched it off her and finished the giant chocolate heart in one sitting.

Maybe it was just 'cause it was his first Valentine's Day, that's it. That's why the chocolate he'd received seemed extra special and he'd saved for so long, really. But then, he'd received chocolate from other girls too, so why didn't he do the same with theirs?

Hitsugaya snuck a look at the girl in question, the cause of all his troubles. Karin looked like she was falling asleep, leaning against the window.

It was because it was Honmei, okay? It was huge and wrapped pretty and everything. Yeah, that was why. He just wanted to save it for later, like maybe forever. Totally.

_But it wasn't even Honmei chocolate. _Hitsugaya let out a dejected sigh, and slid down in his seat, closing his eyes in exasperation. _What the hell is wrong with me?_

It was all Matsumoto's fault; she was the one who made a big deal about it, Honmei, Giri, who the heck cared- her and her stupid whining and trying to eat all his chocolate, it was _his_, dammit. Besides, she had already eaten all of his other chocolates, what right did she have to take Karin's chocolate too- I mean, it was from _Karin_- why would she- _"Oooh, Taichou, is that chocolate from Karin-chaaan_, _you saving it for later? How cute."- "SHUT UP, MATSUMOTO."-"Touchy. Aw, are you being shy?" "It's none of your business, leave me alone." "Ne, it looks like Honmei to me. Say, Taichou, do you like her?" What?_ his face had reddened like a tomato and for some reason he couldn't quite get the words out of his throat to tell her that she was wrong, wrong, wrong, so damn wrong because Matsumoto is always wrong and what did she know of course he didn't like Karin duh because she didn't like him so why would he like her not that it mattered what she thought of him because he didn't care at all since he really didn't-

_BEEEEPP. _

He almost fell out of his seat when the Hollow detector went off inside his pocket.

Trying to keep his composure and appear coolly nonchalant to Tomo beside him, he checked the detector. Hollow due to appear up ahead on the road plus or minus five minutes.

Crap. How the hell was he supposed to stop the bus?

* * *

"Hey, uh…" He looked over at Tomo. "When's the next bathroom stop?"

Tomo gave him a look. "We just started driving. We probably won't stop for an hour at least." He reached over and tried to give Hitsugaya a friendly punch on the arm which Hitsugaya evaded neatly. "O-of course, you don't really need to go, do you? You're too cool for that, Hitsugaya-san. Haha, but I didn't think you were so absentminded, man, they told us before we started, I guess you weren't listening, were you? That's okay because I was! Lucky you were sitting next to me, hey…" Tomo went on.

Hitsugaya gritted his teeth to stop himself from bankai-ing that guy's ass right then and there.

"…what if I do need to go-?" He started, but the moron wasn't even listening.

Screw him. The idiot was useless.

He reached inside his pocket, reassured by the presence of the Gikongan dispenser. He just needed to get outside, take care of business (and not _that_ business) and it'd all be good. But if he couldn't stop the bus, all the students would be in the way. Plus, they could potentially get hurt. And Karin would see him.

He waved down the teacher nearby and told her that he needed to go. The teacher simply repeated what Tomo had said, they weren't stopping for another hour. Hitsugaya threw away his pride and told her that it was urgent; he _really, really _needed to go. At this, the other students at the back looked around at him with smug and sniggering faces. The teacher hemmed and hawed while the students nudged each other and giggled.

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. Hell, the Hollow could've already appeared outside by now! Screw it. He looked at Tomo beside him, the ineffectual teacher and the sniggering students in front. Screw it all. He had nothing left to lose.

Hitsugaya took a deep breath.

* * *

"I'M GOING TO THROW UP!"

The bus immediately jerked to a halt, swerving as it stopped in the road.

Karin jolted awake, wide-eyed as Hitsugaya tore down the aisle of the bus, hands clutched to his stomach. The driver opened the bus door without a word as Hitsugaya rushed out.

The bus was abuzz with students talking and gossiping. Karin didn't know what to think. That Hitsugaya, what was with him? Such a weirdo. Why did she even like- I mean, why did she even bother with him? She smirked. And here she'd thought he was a bit of an arrogant ass, couldn't stand looking at him after having given him chocolate because she'd feel embarrassed, and he'd just look confident and expressionless as always, unlike her and how her heart would quicken and her face would heat up and not because she liked him or anything because she most certainly did not. Duh. But no, Hitsugaya was a dork who had to vomit after riding in a bus for barely half an hour. She chuckled, at him, and at herself. She'd never fall for a guy as lame as that.

Suddenly, she felt pain in her temple and her pulse quickened. She looked out the window urgently. A Hollow?

It felt like it was a little further away, maybe up ahead on the road. She felt relieved that the bus had stopped, that everyone was safe. Then she remembered that Hitsugaya was still outside.

"Crap!" She burst out and jumped to her feet, to the surprise of everyone around her.

"Karin? Where are you going?" Yuzu was alarmed.

Karin didn't respond, pushing past her sister and running down the aisle to the exit.

* * *

The Hollow advanced towards Hitsugaya, who glared just as ferociously back at it.

"Thanks to you, now the whole grade thinks I'm some kind of wimp who gets carsick easily. Thanks a lot."

He darted into the air, pulled his zanpakuto out of its sheath and charged at the Hollow mask.

Pupples, in Hitsugaya's gigai, was standing guard on the grass beside the road. "Master!" He shouted out, "There's someone coming!"

"What?" Hitsugaya turned to see, just as the Hollow's arm came crashing down over his shoulder, sending him crashing down into the ground. He swore at himself for letting down his guard at such a critical moment, leapt up and charged at the Hollow again.

"Master!" Pupples shouted again, "It's Karin! She's coming!"

_Crap! _Hitsugaya swung his sword down through the Hollow's mask. The Hollow gave a cry of pain and began to disintegrate into the air. Hitsugaya spun around and raced towards his gigai.

_Don't let her see me don't let her see me don't let her see me _

"Toushirou!" Karin called, as she ran further along the road. She knew there had been a Hollow here, she could still sense it, but it seemed kind of weaker now. Looking up ahead, she could see the shimmering shape of a fading Hollow. She ran faster towards it.

Hitsugaya glanced back at the vanishing Hollow.

_Don't let her see the Hollow. Don't see it don't see it. _

She mustn't know his involvement with it, any other Hollows or anything to do with the Spiritual world at all. _Because…_ Hitsugaya gritted his teeth as he sprinted to his gigai as hard as he could. …because he couldn't be the Hitsugaya she knew.

She spotted Hitsugaya up ahead, standing there. She sighed in relief and ran towards him, shouting out. "Toushirou, you're all right!"

Hitsugaya saw her, running towards him. The gap between him and his gigai still seemed so far away. She'd see him. She'd see him. She'd be looking at him now, she'd know, she'd know everything and he couldn't-

_Don't look at me don't look at me don't look at me! _

He reached his gigai, falling forward into it.

"Toushirou?" Karin's eyes widened. "EHH!?"

He found himself on top of her, their limbs tangled up from Karin's running towards him and his diving into his gigai. His face was still urgent, blue-green eyes wide and troubled, breathing hard from running so hard. She stared up at him, and was suddenly aware of how close he was, the proximity of his face to hers and her pulse seemed to be racing miles in seconds, her face heated up so much it practically steamed.

"S-sorry!" He burst out, his own face reddening, as he scrambled away from her.

They sat away from each other, each not daring to look at the other and trying to calm down their hearts and the temperature of their faces. Eventually, having somewhat composed himself, Hitsugaya managed to lift his head and glance over at Karin. She was having difficulty slowing her heart rate down and visibly flinched when he called her name.

"Hey, ah…" He looked uncomfortable. "Sorry about that, I… I was in a rush."

"Yeah," she wouldn't look at him.

The silence bugged him. He wanted to fix things up between them, talk to her like they did before Valentine's Day- get rid of these complicated feelings between them.

"Listen, Karin, actually, the truth is I…"

"Don't worry about it," she looked up at him. "I know."

He stared.

"…you're a bit of a wimp, aren't you?" She grinned. "And you get carsick easily."

* * *

**Rejected Line: "Hitsugaya Toushirou could count by twos and tie his shoes. But…"**

**Sorry for being MIA. I'm active on some other sites, so please check there first if you think I'm dead. (I have received some very concerned messages, haha.) Also, I'm a lame conformist and I got a tumblr. The link's on my profile, visit me if you want. I think it'll be a good way to communicate with people, so if you have any questions about my fandoms/fanfiction/whatever, drop me an ask. XD**

**But yeah. SORRY AGAIN FOR HORRENDOUSLY LONG WAIT. *does terrible dogeza. I hope updating every 6 months doesn't become a habit, oh dear. Thanks for putting up with me! Please review and tell me what you think! **


	12. According to Cupid

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still don't own Bleach.**

**Once again and as usual, sorry for the long wait. OTL I've been finishing my first year of uni and writing my nano, but since I'm done with all that, I hope to write a lot more in the next few months during my break. (Hahaha, don't hold me to it.) Thinking ahead about this fic, I'm updating and moving the timeline along at such an incredibly slow pace, it looks like it will go on for a long, long time to come. Thanks for putting up with me! I'll try to do my best! Enjoy chapter 12!**

**Chapter 12- According to Cupid**

The skies were clear and the weather was warm across Kyoto that day. It was a welcome relief for Yuzu who could happily leave the umbrella in the hotel room after yesterday's showers, and Karin who quite enjoyed the slight smell of rain left in the morning air.

The concrete steps up to the temple were damp under her feet as Karin trudged up them, lagging a little behind the noisy group of students ahead of her. They'd already gone up the long sloped walk past the shops lining the street, full of delicacies and souvenirs, umbrellas with sword handles, fans with tie-dyed fabrics and plenty of sweet samples that the shop attendants were happy to hand out. You could see students from other schools, huddling around in their groups, distinguishable by their school uniforms.

The Karakura first-years had been granted free reign to wander around Kiyomizu-dera and its shrines and surrounding area for the morning. The girls and guys had automatically divided into segregated groups, although there was a great amount of gossiping and glancing between each group.

Karin found herself in a group with Yuzu and Midoriko. Jinta was nearby, chattering needlessly loudly with his mates, but he continued eyeing Yuzu's group. It was obvious he wanted to spend the morning with them. Maybe she should invite him over, Karin considered. Then on second thoughts, naaahh. She kinda enjoyed seeing Jinta suffer.

Along the sloped street from before was a store completely dedicated to posters, key chains and various goods from Japanese and Korean idols and singers. Yuzu and Midoriko were busily trying to arrange the next few hours in order to have enough time to shop there while not having to carry around their merchandise all morning. Karin sighed and tried to wait patiently, but Yuzu had looped her arm through Karin's and kept digging her elbow into Karin's side.

"Oh, oh, oh, and the Jishu shrine, of course!" Yuzu said excitedly. "We can get charms for luck throughout the year!"

"Mmm, and love charms," Midoriko sighed to herself, obviously thinking of the mysterious Asano-san she'd once run into. Karin shook her head and inwardly questioned her friend's taste in men.

"And most importantly, the love stones!" Both Yuzu and Midoriko burst out at once and Karin shuddered from their high-pitched voices so early in the morning.

"Ne, ne, Karin-chan?" Yuzu was saying, pulling at Karin's arm. "You've heard of them, haven't you? It's just so romantic; I wish I could try it-"

Well, at least the weather was nice today, Karin thought, not really paying attention to Yuzu's backing vocals. Kyoto was a nice place, after all, but perhaps it would've been nicer to come while the trees and leaves were the classic Autumn red, instead of this green.

"_-so there's these two stones, right, and they're set like ten metres apart, yeah? And-"_

Not that there was anything wrong with the green leaves, they were so fresh and bright and made her feel quite energetic for such an early morning.

"_-and you're supposed to start at one end, and walk across to the stone on the other side with your eyes closed, right and-"_

Come to think of it, Karin looked around her. She hadn't seen Hitsugaya this morning yet. He went through a bit of crap yesterday after they arrived at the hotel and everyone was telling him he should go to bed early and not eat too much dinner because he had such a weak stomach and a frail constitution. Everyone was supposed to stay up late and play midnight games of cards and table tennis, but they had banished Hitsugaya to his room alone for an early night of rest.

For someone so athletically capable, she'd never have thought he was so weak and prone to motion sickness.

"-so if you make it all the way across from one stone to the other with your eyes closed, then the god of love will smile upon you!"

"Uwaah, it's so romantic!"

"Yeah, and you and your loved one will be fated to be together!" Yuzu pretty much squealed. "And your true love will be successful!"

Yuzu and Midoriko squealed together and jumped excitedly. "Should we do that last then? Should we save it for right before we leave? Aahh, but I'm so excited already!"

Maybe she felt a bit bad for him; after all she'd been ignoring him since Valentine's Day, and only really started talking to him again yesterday. He's gotta be feeing pretty bad, she should really make an effort to be nicer.

"Karin-chan! What are you thinking about?"

She was suddenly shocked by Yuzu pulling her back into the conversation and blinked rapidly, trying to work out what they were talking about.

"Karin's been so lost in thought, you must've been thinking about someone," Midoriko narrowed her eyes at Karin with a sly smile.

"Eh, what?" She asked, confused. "Just, Toushirou has been-"

Midoriko and Yuzu were suddenly uncharacteristically silent, staring at her with wide eyes, hands held up to their faces in delight.

Karin scowled. "What?"

"It's Hitsugaya-kun, isn't it?" Yuzu cried, "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!"

"Huh?" Karin stared with disdain at her twin sister.

"Hahaha!" Yuzu burst into smug laughter and drew herself up to her full height. "I knew you liked him! It was definitely a Honmei chocolate you gave him, you can't lie to your twin sister!"

"Eh? Karin-chan gave Honmei chocolate to someone?" Midoriko gasped.

"What, no-" Karin started in protest.

"Aww, it's okay, Karin-chaaann," Yuzu said sweetly, throwing her arms around her sister, "We'll help you out! We'll make sure the god of love smiles on you and Hitsugaya-kun today!"

"Waahh, Karin-chan's blushing!"

"I-I-I'm not!" Karin burst out, her face red and livid. "It's not like that! I don't- I DON'T EVEN LIKE TOUSHIROU!"

* * *

Some birds flew out of the tree above him, as if scared off by a loud noise.

Hitsugaya was startled, as if someone somewhere had just yelled out something mean about him. He sighed dejectedly and trudged onwards towards the large wooden veranda overlooking the hillside. To be brutally honest, he hadn't been having the best time on the school trip at all.

Ever since they got back to the hotel yesterday, he'd been treated like an invalid who needed countless bathroom breaks, an early night's sleep and was unable to eat neither rich food nor food in large amounts. To make matters worse, Tomo had now permanently adopted him as his best friend, saying that he needed a best mate to look after his poor health and how he so admired that Hitsugaya was still determined and hardworking in all aspects of schooling and sport despite his frail disposition.

_I knew I shouldn't have come on this trip_. Hitsugaya scowled and let his feet stomp harder on the veranda, causing other visitors to look disapprovingly at him. He glanced behind him at the steps and the scenery down below, at all the smaller figures of students and visitors. He slowed down, scanned them as if searching for someone in particular.

"Hitsugaya! Why are you walking so slow?" Tomo shouted at him from the other end of the veranda. "Are you not feeling well?"

"I'm feeling fine!" He snapped and ran to catch up.

* * *

Jinta loitered behind his group as they climbed the asphalt-covered slope to the next shrine.

_Huhh. I wonder where Kurosaki and her group are going first. _He paused where he was standing, and looked out down below him. Karin, Yuzu and Midoriko were heading in the opposite direction down towards the street of shops. Jinta sighed and ran a hand through the back of his hair. Darn. It was already the second day of their trip, and he had hardly been able to talk to Kurosaki at all. He'd been hoping that during this trip, they might've been able to get closer, since that was what school trips were for, right-

"Eh? Hanakari? Why are you all by yourself?"

Jinta looked behind him to find that the rest of his group was gone and Tomo and Hitsugaya standing there instead.

"Huh? Where'd they go?" Jinta panicked.

Tomo let out a loud laugh and slapped Jinta in the back heartily. "Too busy daydreaming, eh, Hanakari? No worries, you can join me and Hitsugaya's group! Aren't you lucky we happened to be passing by?"

Jinta scowled at Tomo. He was such an insufferable idiot. "Why would I need to join you guys?" He declared, "I have my own group and they're probably just waiting for me up ahead!"

Tomo looked at him, then shrugged. "Well, suit yourself. We were just about to go down to the shops down there. We'll catch you later," He started to walk past, pulling a less-than-eager Hitsugaya with him.

"Wait!" Jinta suddenly called out.

Tomo and Hitsugaya stopped and looked back at him.

"Don't misunderstand," Jinta said coolly as he walked pompously ahead of them. "I was planning to go down that way anyway. You should've told me earlier."

"Ahahaha! Of course, of course!" Tomo swung an arm around Jinta's shoulder and ran forward, dragging Hitsugaya along by the arm.

* * *

"Eh, Hanakari-kun?" Yuzu's eyes were wide, "I didn't know you were friends with Tomo-kun and Hitsugaya-kun."

"Ah, ah, don't put in a group with those two, I'm not." Jinta shook his head with a somewhat irritated smile on his face. After all, he'd hate to be associated with that idiot Tomo and his never-ending chatter. And Hitsugaya, well- there was something incredibly suspicious about that fellow and besides, Jinta hadn't quite forgiven him for beating him in that cross-country run way back.

"Oh." Yuzu looked disappointed. "…then why are you guys together?"

"Oh, um…" Jinta tried desperately to think of an excuse that would sound cool. "You see, they just needed some strong guy to help them carry their shopping and since I'm such a nice guy I offered to help-"

"Pfft." Karin snicked.

Jinta immediately turned his attention to Karin. "And what are you laughing at, huh, Karin? I should just-"

"Hahaha, calm down, Hanakari!" Tomo piped in. "You sure get worked up easily, don't you?"

"You!" Jinta turned to Tomo heatedly. "Nobody asked you! And I know you're hiding a laugh under that seemingly bank look, Hitsugaya!"

"Then you're busy, Hanakari-kun," Yuzu spoke up, her face fell a little. "I was hoping you could help me and Midoriko-chan out as well…"

"What, what? I can do it! I'll help!" Jinta burst out.

Yuzu's smile seemed as if it had never left her face. "Oh, that's a relief."

_I can't tell if Yuzu is just really naïve or really manipulative… _Karin thought drily.

"Anyway, I was thinking of getting this poster and this wall scroll over here…" Yuzu went on, her voice fading as she followed Midoriko into the store, Jinta close behind and Tomo tagging along with a stupid grin on his face.

Karin realised that she and Hitsugaya were the only ones still standing outside. She half considered following the others inside but was put off by the giggling and squealing of idol fangirls over the merchandise.

_Ugh. _Karin tried not to look over at her silent companion, a few steps away with his arms crossed and leaning against a wooden post in front of the shop. Sure, she'd started talking to him again yesterday, but that didn't mean she didn't still feel strangely uncomfortable around him and that the odd prickly sensation in her chest had dissappeared because it hadn't and besides, yesterday he had actually _fallen _on top of her and his face had been barely centimeters away from hers and crap-

Karin's face flushed bright red.

"Karin?"

She flinched in shock when she heard his voice. He was looking over at her with a slightly concerned expression on his face.

"Are you all right?" Hitsugaya asked bluntly. "Your face is really red."

"I- I'm- I-It's not!" Karin flushed.

Hitsugaya frowned. "Are you sure?" He took the few steps across the distance between them and bent his head down slightly to examine her face. Karin immediately tensed and turned redder. "You're not sick, are you?" He lifted a hand towards her as if to check the temperature of her forehead.

Karin's heart almost stopped and desperately, she ducked her head away from Hitsugaya's hand, her face flaming and heart racing. Quickly retreating a few steps until she was a safe distance away, she retorted, "I-I'm not sick! I'm absolutely fine!"

Offended, Hitsugaya put his hands in his pockets. "What's your problem? I was just concerned about you."

"I can take care of myself." Karin said indignantly. Her face was still red, and it was a struggle for her to regain control of the conversation. "B-besides, _I _should be the one concerned about you. You're the one who's so sickly they had to send you to bed early."

It was a bit of a low blow, but Karin was relieved, feeling her confidence return.

"I am not sickly," Hitsugaya snapped. "That was a misunderstanding!"

Karin smirked, "Sure, sure. Who's the one who had to throw up ten minutes into the bus ride?"

"It was _twenty_ minutes! And I didn't actually have to throw up, there was just this-"

_There was just this Hollow outside that I had to deal with because I'm a shinigami but obviously I can't tell you that because you haven't got a bloody clue! _

"-never mind!" He snapped. "I'm sorry I ever bothered to worry about you!"

"Because I' m perfectly capable of worrying about myself!" Karin's face was starting to redden again. "And I'm completely healthy, unlike you!"

"I'm completely healthy too! I don't need you and the others treating me like some invalid!"

"Then don't treat me like one either!"

"I didn't!" Hitsugaya exclaimed, "You're the one who overreacted."

Karin's face flushed bright red. "Th-that's because-"

_You were too close! And I didn't want you to touch me because I think I might stop breathing and die or something just because everybody has the wrong idea about us after Valentine's Day and for the record, that chocolate was in no way Honmei because I don't even like you!_

"-I don't want to be touched by a guy I don't even like!"

Hitsugaya glared at her, then breathed out angrily. "You're impossible." With that, he crossed his arms again and pointedly looked in the other direction.

_What the hell is her problem?_ Hitsugaya fumed silently._ First she ignores me for a good week or so and then she's all happy and friendly and the next she's trying to humiliate me and then she ducks away from me like she can't stand me!_

Karin and Hitsugaya stood silently outside the store, ignoring each other. Each looked pointedly in the other direction with their arms crossed angrily and thinking murderous thoughts.

The silence was suddenly broken by a strange grumbling sound.

Neither said a word.

Despite herself, Karin couldn't help sneaking a glance over at Hitsugaya beside her. He was still glaring in the other direction, but a slightly embarrassed pink blush had appeared on his face.

"…you haven't had enough to eat, have you?" Karin said reluctantly.

"…no." He admitted.

When he finally relented and turned wearily to look at her, she started. But all of her previous frustration and anger was gone and she was smiling again, in that slightly mischievous way of hers.

Hitsugaya stared. _…she's fickle like a child. _

"They mainly just have snack and dessert shops around here," she said simply. She straightened up and turned to head down the street, pausing for Hitsugaya to catch up. "But it's better than nothing, right?"

As Karin and Hitsugaya walked away down the street together, Yuzu and Midoriko stuck their heads out of the shop doorway and giggled as they watched.

* * *

They found the widest variety of treats and desserts in the shops of the Matsubara-dori street. For Hitsugaya who had been restricted to not eating his full share during dinner last night, it was very hard to keep from altogether inhaling all the food in one go.

Every second store they went past offered yatsuhashi for them to try, in all flavours from mango to pear, and Karin mentioned that if they had collected one from each store it would be the same as buying a boxful. To Hitsugaya's slight disappointment, none of the stores had watermelon-flavoured yatsuhashi, perhaps it didn't exist. Not that he would ever mention such a thing to Karin; she would probably find it funny he had such an affinity for the fruit.

Full almost to bursting, and having forgotten any of the previous discomfort in their relationship since Valentine's Day, it was a cheerful Karin and a content Hitsugaya that walked back up the street together.

"Where do you think they went?" Karin checked the store from before but Yuzu and the others were no longer in there.

"Did they mention where they were planning to go after shopping?"

"Ah, they probably went back up the hill to the shrines and the temple," Karin realized. _But why didn't they wait for us? _

"_We'll help you out! We'll make sure the god of love smiles on you and Hitsugaya-kun today!"_

_EHH? _Karin remembered what Yuzu had said in the morning. They wouldn't dare! You mean all that stuff at the store and just coincidentally leaving her and Hitsugaya alone outside was planned?

"Karin?"

Her face was suddenly red again, and her expression was some mixture between anger and embarrassment. Oh, she was going to kill Yuzu and Midoriko…

"Where are you going?" He frowned as she started running up the sloped hill towards Kiyomizu Temple.

"Jishu Shrine!" She barely managed to reply, before she grabbed Hitsugaya's hand and pulled him along with her.

And he couldn't do anything but stare at the way her black hair flew behind her in the air as she ran.

This girl… Hitsugaya scowled. He didn't understand her at all. She was immature and fickle. She kept him guessing, he didn't know when she'd smile and laugh or when she'd blush with embarrassment or when she'd scowl or when she'd argue and get mad or when she'd grin that wicked grin of hers.

But Karin, in all her various states, she still…

Hitsugaya looked down at their hands joined together and felt some kind of heat rush to his face. And what was wrong with him anyway? She'd declared so many times that she didn't like him, she'd stated it so bluntly in that chocolate of hers! Besides, the Hitsugaya she liked was the him from four years ago, and not the liar whose hand she was holding right now. Still… he let out a frustrated sigh.

Why did it matter so much to him that she viewed him favorably? Why was he so upset that she thought of him as a wimp who got carsick easily? And hell, why had he been so disappointed that the Valentine's chocolate wasn't Honmei?

They were running up the cement steps now, and she hadn't let go.

"Karin-" He started, but she wasn't listening.

When he glanced over at her, he found that her short skirt swayed upwards as she ran up the steps.

…he wished she wasn't wearing bike shorts under her skirt.

_Wait, what? _He shouldn't have been looking there in the first place, but immediately his whole face heated up. _What am I thinking? _He was absolutely mortified; he could feel the heat spreading all the way down his arms and to his hands.

Karin noticed and turned to look at him, "Toushirou, your hand-"

He was deliberately avoiding her gaze and staring off into the other direction, his other hand in front of his face to hide his red face.

"Eh," She slowed down a little. "Are you feeling sick, Toushirou?"

"N-no!" He exclaimed, still not looking at her. "Let's just… go, okay?"

She pulled him closer and stared. He glanced at her and looked away again. She scowled and huffed. "Fine then. Suit yourself!"

_Ah, crap. _He coughed and tried to calm himself down, return to his normal blood pressure. Ah, but that sudden jump in how fast his heart was beating must've been because they were running, of course.

Karin's concerned face was…

Hitsugaya felt like his face was so hot he could cook on it.

…cute.

* * *

"Karin-chan! You're here!" Yuzu shouted out in delight from where she was standing beside one of the Love Stones outside the shrine. Her eyes suddenly widened when she realized it wasn't just Karin who had come running up the steps.

"Ehhhh, they're already holding hands!" Midoriko shrieked.

Karin's face heated up as she quickly let go of Hitsugaya's hand. "It's not like that!"

"Well, that was rather rude," Hitsugaya said flatly, trying to sound normal.

"You're not helping!" Karin was desperate.

While in her confusion and frustration, she suddenly felt someone's hands clamp over her eyes. "Yuzu, what are you doing?"

"Looking out for your future happiness, Karin-chan," she replied sweetly and before Karin could react, Yuzu had pushed her forward.

She couldn't see anything and barely had time to open her eyes and work out where she was as she stumbled and fell forward a few steps, only managing to stop herself by grabbing onto a rocky surface to her right.

That's when she heard the applause and the cheers of an audience. Blinking in confusion as she stood up and looked around her, she realized she'd been pushed forward and had run blindly across the distance separating two stones and that the rocky surface she'd stopped her momentum with was the very Love Stone said to grant true love.

"What…" Her face flamed redder and hotter than ever before, "Yuzu, what did you just-"

But there was no answer as the devious twin had already run off, and only the disappearing back of Jinta Hanakari could be seen chasing after her, carrying bags of shopping and souvenirs and calling out, "Wait for me, Kurosaki-saaaaaaannn!"

"Yuzu!" Karin looked around her desperately.

"It's too late, she's already gone," Hitsugaya said matter-of-factly. He'd stepped up to stand beside her, nonchalant expression on his face as usual.

"Ah, so it's you two, is it?" An old lady dressed in full traditional Japanese robes shuffled towards them from where she had been watching behind her charm-selling stand.

Her fine white hair had been pulled behind her head into a neat bun adorned with an elaborate hair ornament, while her eyes seemed so small they almost vanished into horizontal slits in her face. "Hmm," she murmured as she inspected Karin through her tiny eyes. "I give you two months."

"Huh?" Karin was completely lost.

"Two months." The woman repeated ominously.

"Until what?"

"Until you two get together." She said without batting an eyelash.

Karin's horrified cry could be heard echoing throughout the whole of Kiyomizu temple and the surrounding mountainside.

"By the way, I'm also offering love charms from 800 yen and up. The best one is 2400 yen of course; it even comes with a complimentary instruction manual."

* * *

That day, Karin realized that her twin sister Yuzu, despite the sweet smile and seemingly innocent demeanor, was actually the devil in disguise; while Hitsugaya realized that the immature Karin, whether smiling or teasing or angry was actually… kind of cute.

**Yeah, they've ended up in Kyoto, because I can. Kiyomizu-dera is a really beautiful spot, by the way. I went last year and it's lovely. Of course, I'm forever alone so I wouldn't even think about trying the Love Stone, haha. **

**On the hitsukarin in this chapter: I feel that there are many facets and dimensions to the interactions between Karin and Hitsugaya. While they can both appear cool and hard to reach from each other, such as Karin with her smug and teasing tendencies and Hitsugaya with his aloof and blank expressions; they also have this capacity to argue and bicker with each other over silly things, mainly in an effort to maintain the upper hand in the relationship. It's their clumsy way of hiding the weakness they feel in their affection for each other, and I really enjoyed writing this element of their relationship in this chapter.**

**Anyway, that's it for now! Please review! Thank you so much for all the favourites, watches and reviews, guys. And seriously, I get notifications when people follow this story, and I know you're there- please leave me a review, I can't improve or tell what I did well in if you don't tell me! And of course, I love hearing from you guys, on fanfiction/deviantART/tumblr, wherever suits you! I'm interested in getting to know you all. ^_^ Let's talk! (It will probably guilt trip me into writing faster, haha.) **

**Until next chapter, thank you for reading and take care of yourselves! emichii.**


	13. Carefree high school kids

**Yo. **

**I know, hard to believe, TWO CHAPTERS IN A MONTH. IMPOSSIBLE. But, hey, it's my Christmas present to you all. Thanks for all your support and reviews throughout the last three years! Hope you enjoy chapter 13! Merry Christmas!**

"Karin! Karin, wake up! You're going to miss breakfast if you sleep any longer!"

Yuzu tugged desperately at the blanket but her twin held on with a vice-like grip.

"…mmph… leave me alone." Karin's voice was irritated, muffled by the blanket.

She was curled up and buried under the covers as if in a cocoon; only the ends of her black hair could be seen peeking out from under the blanket.

Yuzu was pulling at the blanket again, trying unsuccessfully to flip it off.

"Piss off!" Karin suddenly snapped; her face visible for a second, expression furious and her eyes seething, before she vanished under the covers again.

"Karin!" Yuzu admonished her, but Karin had already stopped listening.

**Chapter 13- Carefree high school kids.**

She hadn't slept well last night; in fact she'd hardly slept at all. She'd woken up a little past midnight in a cold sweat with a slight headache that only seemed to get worse as she sat up in her futon. The girls and boys in the class had been divided into separate rooms, each in large rectangular wooden framed rooms with papered walls and tatami mats on the floor. When she woke up, all she could see in the dim light was a sea of haphazardly placed futons and sleeping bodies, silent except for the soft breathing and the occasional snore from the other corner.

She'd done her best to step over and around the futons and sleeping classmates, but might've accidentally stomped on someone's hand on her way out. It had been chilly out in the corridors, and it took effort to walk down the thin corridors without making footsteps on the wood.

It was just her luck. Ah, she couldn't even have a peaceful class trip, could she?

The room that the boys were sleeping in was further down and across the narrow corridor. She wondered if she should slide open the door and call him, but was afraid of waking the others. She didn't need the extra commotion a girl in the boy's room would cause.

She waited outside, leaning against the wall beside the door, waited for about ten minutes, her agitation growing. Eventually she gave up, he wasn't coming. Stupid boy. And she had counted on him bringing his bat with him too.

From inside the room, Jinta Hanakari rolled over with a slight snore, completely oblivious.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hitsugaya had found himself with unwanted companions.

They were standing outside the hotel, away from the windows and doorways so they couldn't be heard or seen. It was late, and the only light came from the few nightlights scattered near the road and the moon above them, partly hidden by the cloudy night sky.

Ah crap, he hadn't expected this. He'd stayed up late with a couple of the other boys, mucking around in their room, throwing pillows at each other and general late-night gossip and conversations about girls and whatever teenagers these days talked about. He hadn't contributed much personally, but it sure beat being banished to bed early like before. Besides, despite Tomo's endless chatter and overfamiliarity, he found that he quite enjoyed this meaningless exchange- the laughter and dirty jokes, the ring of immature school boys seated on their haphazard futons.

It beat having to stay up alone anyway. His Hollow detector told him a Hollow was due to appear at midnight, plus or minus ten minutes. Speaking of which, he really wished Twelfth Company would upgrade their technology. It would be so much easier if the estimated time of Hollow arrival could be more specific. Half an hour was too long for him to vanish inconspicuously for.

He tried to tell them he needed to go to the bathroom, to which Tomo jumped to his feet and offered to go with, to which Hitsugaya responded with barely held back disapproval, to which Tomo insisted he also needed to go. And so, he ended up on a midnight trip to the bathroom with the insufferable boy. He expertly changed his plans- by the time they got back to their room; most of the guys would be asleep, right? He'd say goodnight and slip into his futon, pretend to fall asleep but actually take his gikongan and run off to deal with the Hollow! He'd have to be careful Karin didn't pick up his reiatsu, but he could deal with that. What he didn't count on however, was running into _these _guys.

They were standing with Karin's soccer buddies, the usual four guys minus one. Apparently, Usaka kept to a strict nine-thirty bedtime. They didn't look too keen on Tomo's chatter either, but made no effort to leave him and Hitsugaya alone.

"You're not tired, are you, Hitsugaya?" Tomo said cheerfully. "We should all play a game together!"

"Oh, why not?" Donny said eagerly, his large afro hairstyle loomed large in the dim light, casting an eerie shadow across the pavement.

It would be midnight soon. He needed to get away. They seemed deep in conversation; apparently Ryohei was formulating a plan for them to peek into the ladies' baths, and Donny who was easily excited, was trying to keep it in his pants.

"So, where are you going, Toushirou?"

He stopped where he had been trying to sneak away and turned to glare at the boys staring curiously back at him. Great, and now they had even decided they'd earned to right to call him by his first name.

The boy with the hair gathered into a small spike at the top of his head scowled and crossed his arms. "What's your problem? Karin calls you that and you never mind,"

"Ka… K-Kurosaki's different," He muttered, flushing slightly as he remembered what happened during the day.

Pinta was unimpressed; scowl only seeming to get deeper. "Don't think you're so tough, Karin doesn't get close to just anyone. And what's going on with you two anyway, not that I really care because she's lame and annoying and-"

The boy had his chin pointed up, arms crossed arrogantly and mouth fixed in a disapproving grimace. _…oh, is that how it is? _Hitsugaya realized. Well, with all of Karin's best friends being guys, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Oh, carefree high school kids and their hormones. Surely, they should have more on their minds than romance-

"Ehh, that's not what you reeeallly think, is it, Pintaaa?" The boy with the two-toned hair standing beside Pinta nudged him with an elbow. "In fact, you love it when she bosses you around…"

"Sh- shut up, Ryohei!" It was dark, but anyone with half a brain cell could tell Pinta was blushing.

"Don't wanna." Ryohei taunted. "I know you went to buy that love charm yesterdaayy…"

"Why you-!" The sound of scuffling and punching ensued.

"G-guys, stop it!" Donny's squeaky voice rang out.

Amidst the distraction, Hitsugaya kept walking, his facial expression flat. That's right; it was different for these kids, wasn't it? Their biggest concerns were the school trip and the gossip and excitement of being in the vicinity of their crush that came with it. Hitsugaya felt an ironic smirk pull at the corner of his mouth. Carefree high school kids.

* * *

She felt the sudden swell of spiritual pressure ripple through the air. It felt like a massive weight had been forced down onto her shoulders, as if her knees would buckle to the ground.

_Crap! It's close! _She was outside now, back against the outside wall of the hotel. In the distance she could see the looming mountainside and shadows casted by trees in the dim light.

_What should I do? _She looked out into the night, but it was impossible to see much out there. Even if she could feel the presence of the Hollow out there, she was no good at detecting its exact location, not in this darkness, not out here in an unfamiliar place. Her pulse started racing, she hated having to depend on anyone else, but dammit, what wouldn't she give for Jinta's help right now. Stupid boy was probably out like a log, dreaming of his beloved Yuzu.

Karin stepped out further from the hotel; the night seemed silent apart from the rustling of grass under her feet. She was suddenly hit with a burst of exhaustion, and closed her eyes for a moment, tried not to fall asleep right there. Shinigami sure were useless, she frowned as she fought back a yawn. If they actually turned up and did their job, she could be living a much more normal life right now.

Stupid shinigami.

* * *

Hitsugaya sneezed. Someone must be talking about him.

"Are you all right, Hitsugaya?" Tomo said with concern. "Do you feel cold? Are you getting sick?"

Hitsugaya glowered at the other boy. "I told you, I'm not a sickly invalid, I'm fi-" He stopped when he realized that the four boys were right behind him, looking eagerly at him.

He forced a pleasant smile at them with difficulty. _…I thought I left you guys behind._

"So, where are we going?" Tomo went on. "You seem like you know where you're heading."

Hitsugaya swore under his breath. These guys were right at his heel and not planning to leave anytime soon. There was no way he could take his gikongan and run off in front of them, maybe if he found a darker spot…

Just then a huge roar sounded out, causing the air to tremble and the ground to rumble under their feet.

_Crap! _

"What was that?"

"It came from down there!" Ryohei was already running towards the sound, towards the mass of shadowy trees stretching out in front of them, vanishing into the distance.

"G-guys, I don't think we should go so far away…" Donny whimpered as he trailed behind the others.

"Y-yeah," Hitsugaya tried to draw himself to his full height and sound confident and nonchalant. "It probably wasn't anything, we should go back." _Or actually, you guys should go back and leave me alone so I can deal with the source of the noise! _

"But why?" Pinta looked back with an unimpressed face. "You're the one who was leading us this way in the first place!"

"Aww, are you scared, Hitsugaya?" Tomo laughed, "I didn't think you were that kind of person!"

_I'm not! And I wasn't leading you guys anywhere; you're the ones that followed me!_

"I'm not scared," Hitsugaya snapped. "And this wasn't the way I meant to go, it just happened that we turned this way since its dark and all-"

"That's right, where were we planning to go?" Tomo rambled on, "The best thing about class trips are nighttime pranks and midnight expeditions! Hitsugaya, you look like you've got something awesome planned for us!"

_I'm the leader now? How did this even happen? What is wrong with you kids, why can't you just stay in bed and go to sleep like normal peo-_

A second roar came from beyond the trees, this one louder and closer that the first. But that wasn't what made Hitsugaya's heart drop. Nearby, just coming towards them, from the direction of the hotel was a certain someone's reiatsu…

"Okay, that's it, I'm definitely going to find out what that sound is!" Pinta shouted, turning towards the trees.

"No!" Hitsugaya blurted out, Pinta gave him an odd look, Ryohei opened his mouth to protest.

_Crap, crap, crap- _He could feel Karin's presence drawing closer, worse still, it seemed like she was running and damn, that Hollow was heading towards them and all these stupid boys here, there's going to be a collision, how could he-

"WHOA! Look, you can see into the women's bathhouse from there!" He exclaimed.

"WHERE?" The boys demanded as they all turned to look back at the buildings.

Hitsugaya swallowed his gikongan and vanished into the trees.

* * *

Karin heard a scream.

She ran faster and tore into the clearing behind the hotel. She could just make out a group of people huddled a bit away from the trees and the scrub, she hoped nobody was hurt.

"What's going on, is everything okay?" She slowed to a halt, breathing hard.

"Karin, what are you doing here?"

"Guys…" she blinked at her friends standing around and looking blankly back at her. "…I… I heard screaming so I thought something happened."

"Oh, Donny got a little excited," Ryohei explained with a casual shrug. "Look, you can peek into the women's bathhouse from here,"

"What are you looking there for?" Karin snapped furiously. She was bent over, her hands rested on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath. _You mean I ran all that way for nothing? _She had honestly been terrified- that someone she knew, that her friends could've been Hollow food.

"Don't get so worked out," Ryohei waved a hand dismissively. "It was Hitsugaya who worked it out,"

"What?" Toushirou… Toushirou was _that_ kind of person?

She was at once both mortified and infuriated. That boy, how the hell could he do such a thing- what a disgraceful excuse for a- wait, why was she angry about that, she had other things to worry about, like that Hollow attacking.

She just hadn't expected Hitsugaya, of all people, to be hanging out with her group of friends, much less engaging in such inappropriate activities, so she hadn't noticed him there when she first ran in. Her heart hadn't calmed down from the run, her nerves felt like they were wound up tight, the fear that someone might've been hurt still digging in her chest; her whole body was exhausted as she looked over at him.

He was silent, not talking to the others, a white-haired figure minding his own business and looking in the other direction. This guy, honestly… Karin didn't know what to think. She was still watching him when she felt the Hollow's spiritual pressure disappear from the air.

* * *

"Whoa, look, she's finally up!"

"She looks like she's seen a ghost, or a monster!"

"Haha, no, _she_ looks like the monster!"

Karin marched into the breakfast hall with the expression of a devil, ignoring the comments and stares. Her legs felt heavy and her eyelids were heavy, dark eye circles like bruises on her face.

"Karin," Yuzu stood up from one of the tables in the room, an apologetic expression on her face. "I tried to wake you up in time for breakfast, but you wouldn't get up. And they wouldn't let me save any food for you so-"

Karin smiled and shook her head. "Nah, it's my fault." She looked around her at the long tables set up in the room, some were empty, and others had students seated around them playing cards and board games. From the next room she could hear the sound of a table tennis game, the rattle of a Foosball table. "We have free time this morning, right? I'll just go out and grab something to eat from the shops."

"Oh, but we're not supposed to leave the hotel," Yuzu said, "We have to be packed and on the bus by eleven."

Karin shrugged. "It'll be all right. I'll be back by then." She noticed Midoriko besides Yuzu and grinned deviously. "Besides, you'll cover for me, won't you?"

* * *

"Karin."

She looked up in surprise. He looked just as surprised to see her. She had been heading back to the hotel, taking her time along the quiet Kyoto streets, enjoying the way the pale sunlight filtered through the trees and created patterns on the pavement. Hitsugaya was on the other side of the road; he looked calm and composed as always, his snowy-white hair in its usual style, falling a bit over his eyes. His school shirt was crisp, his hands in his pockets.

Karin suddenly felt really gross in comparison, with her sloppy uniform, itchy skin and dark eye circles. Irritation bubbled up in her chest and it took all she had to keep from swearing at him right then and there. Regardless, she waited for him to catch up to her.

"…what are you doing out here?" She asked somewhat sullenly, not looking at him as they walked.

"I should ask you the same thing." He replied without missing a beat.

His confident voice made Karin's face heat up and she scowled and crossed her arms. "It's none of your business."

Hitsugaya blinked. "So you're allowed to ask me what I'm doing, but I'm not allowed to ask you?"

Karin's face burnt bright red. Crap, why did everything he say annoy her so much? Dammit, why was he so unaffected by it all, how dare he act like he was completely in control when she was groggy and grumpy and feeling like an idiot? It was all because of that stupid woman yesterday-

"Karin?"

He was bending over and looking at her closely, blue-green eyes concerned.

She jolted back from him, her face burning, her heart beating out of her chest. Why did he have to do that? She was grumpy and tired, she felt gross, she looked ugly and it wasn't fair…

She stood on the other side of walkway, a good metre between them, glaring at the pavement.

_I'm just really tired. _

She straightened up, rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes, tried to sound casual and uncaring. "I just really hate this," she said as she began walking again.

Hitsugaya had to run a few steps to catch up, and even then her pace was hard to match. Like there was some static in the connection between them, and he found himself wondering if they would ever be on the same level.

"…you know I see things I shouldn't," Karin said, "and I hate that. And I'm sick of having to pretend all the time, of people talking about me and not understanding. It's the same wherever I go. And this… this stupid school trip isn't any different!"

She didn't mean to sound angry, but the more she thought about it and the more she said, the more frustrated she felt. And the fear from last night resurfaced, the heaviness in her legs when she ran to face the Hollow, the exhausted relief that nobody was hurt, the constant nervous beating of her racing heart.

"And Donny and Pinta and those guys… always mucking about and getting themselves into trouble, it's always me who has to run and look after them and I'm sick of it!"

It came out like a shout.

Hitsugaya stopped.

Karin turned to look questioningly at him. "Toushirou?"

"A-at least you can go to school!" He snapped.

His outburst surprised both Karin and himself.

And suddenly he couldn't help it; it came bursting out all at once.

"At least you can go on school trips!" He exclaimed, "At least you can play soccer with your friends and do all these things you take for granted every day!"

He was thinking of how he'd always watched her from the roof, back when he'd first met her, how she'd laughed and played with her friends. He was thinking of those stupid cross-country runs and that pointless athletic carnival and the view of the stars from the railing on the hill. He was thinking of the stupid fuss around Valentine's Day, how strangely excited everyone got, how absurd it was that feelings could be conveyed in paper-wrapped chocolate hearts. He was thinking of bus rides and school trips, love shrines and overpriced lucky charms, rooms full of futons and dirty-minded schoolboys.

"At least you have those friends that drive you insane, at least you have the people you want to protect. It doesn't make a difference whether you see things or not, it doesn't matter what people say about you, you're still here, aren't you?"

He thought of stupid eager Tomo, the pillow fight in the guys' room last night, Pinta and Ryohei fighting over a silly comment and Donny trying to stop them.

"What are you complaining about, huh? Some people don't have any of those things, and I-"

He stopped abruptly, his eyes widened, as if shocked by all he'd accidentally spilled out.

She was still standing there, across from him, own eyes wide in surprise. "Toushirou…"

_..I'm envious._

And it had already been so many months since he came here, and those carefree high school kids around him had irritated him to no end. Because now he knew what could've been- he'd had a taste of what life would've been like if he wasn't already dead.

And the silence suddenly felt deafening, and his unfinished words hung there like a death sentence. Had he said too much, had he revealed his secret, had he come out sounding like an emotional wuss, had he forever blown his chances with Karin- not that he had been hoping for anything, not that there'd been a chance in the first place, of course not.

After all, he didn't belong in the same world that she did.

* * *

**Oh… what is wrong with you two? Sigh, I feel like Hitsugaya and Karin just keep running around in circles over and over again. Mainly Karin, she's got a pretty bad case of denial. Anyway, I really wanted to write about Hitsu's feelings about living the average human life- I think it's something that doesn't get explored much. I guess this story is just as much about Hitsu as it is about Karin, and they both have a lot of growing to do before I'm satisfied, haha. **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Have a great new year! Take care, stay safe, eat good food and party it up in all your fandoms, haha! I hope you'll stick with me in 2013 too! **


	14. U-Turn

…**hello. It's already June. I'm sorry.**

**Ahh, it's incredibly late now, but I wish you all a happy new year! And even if for you, the year has gotten off to a bad start, I hope the rest of the year will treat you well! As for me, I'm slowly drowning to death under university work and trying to draw things in time for SMASH! Convention this year. OTL So updates will probably be few and far in between (which you're all used to by now), but I'll do my best! **

**Enjoy chapter 14!**

* * *

"_What are you complaining about, huh? Some people don't have any of those things, and I-"_

_..I'm envious._

**Chapter 14- U-Turn. **

Hitsugaya sighed heavily. He was lucky Matsumoto was out; because he would never hear the end of it should she find him in his current state of duress. He had taken advantage of her absence and was sprawled out on his back across the couch, face turned to the side and staring dejectedly over at the opposite wall, an arm and leg hanging limply over the edge.

What to do… He sunk face-down into the cushioning. Seriously, even after his hundred or so years of life, and all that time spent training and gaining ranks in the Seireitei, what was the point if it couldn't help him defeat the most basic obstacle of all?

Hitsugaya Toushirou had girl troubles.

* * *

"_Toushirou…" She looked surprised, unsure, standing there with her arms uncomfortably at her sides. _

_And he was thinking that he'd blown his chances with her once and for all, and come to think of it, what chances were there in the first place? Crap, what had he even expected? It wasn't even like he liked Karin or anything; she was just this annoying human girl who saw ghosts, just Ichigo's bossy little sister, immature and fickle as a five-year-old, grumbled about everything, and who, for god knows what reason, wouldn't get out of his head._

_And he could no longer look at her, and he knew he was being a brat, how was she to know that he didn't have the same opportunities because he was a shinigami? After all, wasn't it he himself who kept it from her? _

_Karin's face looked troubled as she stared at him. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but-_

"_There you are!" _

_They turned to look towards the direction of the voice. Yuzu was running down the path towards them, Midoriko trailing behind her. Their faces were flushed and Yuzu looked uncharacteristically cross. _

"_I thought you said you'd be back in time!" She grabbed Karin by the wrist. "But I guess you were too busy with your boyfriend. Hurry, the bus about to leave!" _

_They all waited for her to deny it, for her usual outburst: 'He's not my boyfriend!' or 'I told you- I don't even like him!'_

_But she didn't say anything. Instead, she was silent and went obediently along with Yuzu, leaving Hitsugaya to stare after her retreating back._

* * *

It had been three days since the school trip. There'd been the two days of the weekend after they'd returned, and then today, Monday. It had been three days since he last spoke to Kurosaki Karin.

He would've felt like he was dying; only he was already dead, so he didn't. But the school trip had ended on a sour note for both of them.

Bloody hell. Now they were right back where they started. Karin had every reason to be angry at him now, every reason to ignore him. Why did they keep going around in circles? Were they even friends?

Why was this girl so much trouble anyway?

Hitsugaya couldn't breathe. He was suffocating face-down into the couch. With a great amount of effort, he managed to turn his face away from the cushioning, and in the direction of the doorway.

_This must be divine retribution. It's payback for what I did before. _

It was his fault for playing games, really. For pretending that he wasn't who he was. For outwardly rejecting her.

"…_who are you?"_

He could never forget the image of her standing there, looking up at him, the clouds of dust and debris from the Hollow around them, and the way her face fell.

Really, no wonder the girl sent more mixed signals than a broken traffic intersection. He couldn't keep up, because he didn't know who he was supposed to be anymore. At what point did Hitsugaya Toushirou the shinigami captain overlap with the shallow human character he was playing?

And he couldn't keep up with the Kurosaki Karin who changed as often as he did. One minute she was the Karin he'd remembered from four years back, the one with the wicked grin, the one who wanted to show him the sky, the one who looked at him with a slightly pained wistful expression; the next she was irritable, sarcastic and unimpressed with her arms constantly crossed in front of her chest.

Actually, he liked the smiling Karin most of all.

But of course, Karin only smiled the hardest for the guy she liked. She'd only sit outside on the railing at night for the guy she was hoping to see. And that guy wasn't him.

Well, actually it was. She just didn't know it.

Hitsugaya let out a low, ironic chuckle. What a mess he'd gotten into.

"T-TAICHOU?"

The voice was so loud he almost rolled off the couch in shock. Hurriedly, he pulled himself into a somewhat composed sitting position and glared at the figure in the doorway.

"Ehhh," Matsumoto's eyes were wide as she gaped at her captain, her hands full of shopping bags. "Taichou's laughing? And to himself? No waaayyy, are you okay? Are you feeling sick or something?"

"I'm not sick!" Hitsugaya snapped. Crap, he was so sick of that line. No pun intended.

Matsumoto shot him a dubious look as she crossed the floor past him. "If you say so…" she sing-songed as she carelessly emptied a shopping bag onto the counter, oranges, cucumbers and a large cabbage rolling onto the floor.

"Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya leapt to his feet as she proceeded to tip what looked like an egg carton out of the next bag.

* * *

"What's wrong with you, Karin-chan?"

Karin was lying on her back on the couch, looking listlessly at the comic book in her hands. "…nothing."

Yuzu stopped from where she was chopping carrots in the kitchen. "Sure, you've only been staring at that same page for, let's see- the last ten minutes or so."

"Shut up." Karin turned the page.

"Not to mention the book's upside-down."

Karin's mouth twitched and she threw the book down onto the coffee table. Getting to her feet, she ambled aimlessly around the living room before stopping in front of Yuzu. Her eyes were narrowed into a concerned frown and hands shoved defensively into her pockets.

"Do you think I'm being too harsh on Toushirou?"

Yuzu went back to chopping carrots, but watched Karin out of the corner of her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

Karin let out a tiny sigh. "I don't know, we kinda got into a fight on the last day of the school trip. So now I'm ignoring him. But he didn't really do anything wrong."

…_I was just surprised, I guess. _

_I didn't think Toushirou would suddenly explode like that. I didn't think he felt so strongly about anything. I was so used to being the one picking fights, I didn't expect that he could do the same. _

"So now you're regretting it?" Yuzu said smoothly. "And you're feeling irritated and bored because you can't talk to Hitsugaya-kun."

Karin scowled. She wished her sister wasn't so accurate all the time.

"…I just don't want to be the one to apologize." She admitted sullenly.

Yuzu gave Karin an amused smirk. "So you've already forgiven him?"

"I just want us to be friends again, like usual." Karin crossed her arms.

Yuzu put the knife into the sink and swept the carrot slices into a bowl. "I hope so too. After all, White Day is almost here."

"White Day? What's that got to do with-"

Yuzu pulled a face of mock surprise. "You gave him Valentine's chocolate, didn't you? How is he supposed to respond to your declaration of love if you ignore him?"

Karin's face turned bright red. "I didn't declare my love! It was Giri chocolate! A-and I told you- I don't like him that way!"

"Sure, if you say so," Yuzu opened a cupboard.

"D-don't say that so casually. What? Why are you smiling like that? Yuzu!"

But well, Karin reasoned to herself, Toushirou wasn't a bad guy. And really, she kind of missed him. _Yeah, next week, for sure. I'll fix things up with Toushirou._

* * *

Crisis averted, Hitsugaya let out a sigh of relief as he put the eggs safely away in the fridge. Matsumoto was now the one sprawled out on the couch, having been banished from the kitchen.

Matsumoto always looked like she was well-versed in social affairs and romantic relationships, although maybe that was just an impression given from her huge rack. Hitsugaya wanted to ask: _What's the best way to apologize to a girl? Particularly a girl who's as unpredictable as the weather. _

"Oh!" Matsumoto sat up suddenly and clapped her hands together.

"What is it now?" Hitsugaya scowled.

Matsumoto's were wide. "It's White Day next week, Taichou! What are you going to do?"

"Do?" Hitsugaya's eyes narrowed so that they were practically slits. "What lousy human tradition is it this time?"

"Whaatt, I explained it to you a month ago." Matsumoto sighed. "You didn't think all those girls gave you chocolate without expecting something in return, did you? And don't pretend you didn't get any chocolate, 'cause I know you did! It took me three whole days to get through it all-"

"I knew it was you!" Hitsugaya exploded. "There was no way the contents of that bag could decrease at such a fast rate!"

"Aw poo." Matsumoto pouted, "You had so much though, Taichou, least you could've done was share."

"I didn't have to share because I knew you would take it anyway!"

"That's obviously not what you thought about Karin-chan's chocolate," Matsumoto sing-songed. "Let's see, you kept that one on your desk for week, was it?"

Hitsugaya's ears burned red. "Shut up! It was five days!"

"Ah right, that was the massive chocolate heart in the red cellophane and pink ribbon," Matsumoto nodded and stroked her chin, feigning wisdom. "You better respond to her affections gently, Taichou."

"I-It wasn't honmei!" Hitsugaya burst out. He knew that very well because his heart had hurt just a teeny tiny bit when he'd seen the _JUST FRIENDS _written bluntly on top.

"So what are you going to give her, Taichou?"

…_man, I don't even know. _Hitsugaya slumped over on the counter amidst the empty grocery bags and let out a small sigh. She wasn't even talking to him at the moment, how was he supposed to give her anything?

Matsumoto was obscured from his view from a pile of trashy fluro-coloured magazines, reminiscent of the one she had shown him before. "Oi, what's all this?" He complained. "You were supposed to get groceries, not reading material for humans."

The bubbly Japanese writing littered on the cover was so bright it stung his eyes. _TEN WAYS TO TELL IF HE'S REALLY SORRY!_ It blared out.

"Matsumoto!" He grabbed the magazine and flung it at her.

"Ow," came the barely audible reply from his useless lieutenant.

…but wait. Maybe… Hitsugaya's eyes widened with realization. Maybe this was the perfect chance to fix things up. Yeah. He just had to get her the perfect White Day present and Karin would be sure to forgive him. And everything could go straight back to normal.

Or at least the kind of normal where his entire life was a lie and Karin didn't have the faintest clue.

But what do you give a human girl as a White Day present?

He had no fricking clue! What to buy, where to buy it, what she'd like, did he have to gift wrap it the same way?

His gaze drifted over to the useless assistant captain lounging on the couch, face hidden behind her trashy human world magazine.

Hitsugaya raised himself to full height and leaned an elbow as nonchalantly as he could on the counter. "Say, Matsumoto," He said casually, "Since you're so knowledgeable about the human world and their customs…"

"Yes, Taichou?" She was immediately at attention, a smug grin already spreading across her face. Hitsugaya grimaced.

"What would a girl like as a White Day gift?" He asked as quickly and professionally as possible.

Mercifully, Matsumoto kept the gloating to a minimum. "Ooh, Orihime told me all about this," she said excitedly. "Like, like… um." She paused for a moment, frowned. _Crap, I can't think of anything. What was it again, what did they give again? Did they give anything at all, apart from a response to a confession? Was it just chocolate in return? Can't be-_

She glanced at her glaring captain and chuckled, waving a hand breezily. "Oh, you know. The usual. Flowers. Stuff… stuffed toys! That's right! H-handkerchiefs. Ha-hair accessories…"

Hitsugaya was looking unconvinced. Matsumoto looked around desperately, eyes falling onto the open page of her woman's magazine.

"Oh!" Matsumoto brightened. "How about this? It says here that women really love it when guys buy lingerie for their girlfriends."

"Laundry? Why on earth would you give someone laundry-"

"Lin-ge- rie."

_What's that? _He wanted to ask, but he had not yet recovered from the humiliation of having to ask Matsumoto for help in the first place.

_Right, play it cool. I am just as familiar with the Living World as idiot Matsumoto is. _

"Yeah, so?" He shrugged. "What's so special about that?"

"It says that it shows intimacy and trust. As well as a hint that one might want to get to know the other a little better, if you know what I mean-"

Intimacy? Trust? Knowing each other better? Hitsugaya didn't have a clue what it was, but it sounded about right. Maybe…

Matsumoto snickered. "But with your height, they probably won't even let you in the store!"

He was heavily offended. "I'm taller now!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" She waved a hand carelessly. Then she frowned, "Do they even let high-schoolers into the shop?"

"Huh?"

"You're supposed to be in high school, right? Or middle school? First year of high school? Humans and their education system, really-"

"What kind of shop has an age-restriction?"

"Well, no, the problem is mainly that you're a boy. No offense, Taichou, you grew up splendidly and all, but you are still far from a man. Will you be able to walk in there and buy it without looking like a pervert, or a hormonal child, or an overly hopeful-"

"Did you want me to get her that or not?" Hitsugaya snapped.

Matsumoto looked at her dear young captain, at his harassed expression and his tousled white hair and the faint redness tingeing his cheeks.

She smiled serenely. "Tell you what, Taichou, I will personally go and pick one out for her."

"What, why?" He was frowning again, "It's my White Day gift so I-"

"Listen, I am a woman. And I know all about a woman's heart and that of a young girl's like Karin-chan. I'd pick a better gift than anything you could possibly think of."

Well, damn, couldn't argue with that. Hitsugaya Toushirou knew next to nothing about women and the female gender, which was how he was stuck in this situation in the first place. And truthfully, the only thing he'd been thinking of was a soccer ball. Not that Karin seemed to need more of those.

"I'll even make sure they gift-wrap it for you!"

They even did the gift wrapping? That almost sounded too good to be true.

Matsumoto was already getting excited. "What colour do you think she'd like? How about a theme?"

"What? A theme?" Hitsugaya threw his arms in the air. "I don't know- soccer balls?"

* * *

On White Day the next week, Hitsugaya gave his return gift and said that he hoped they would get along better from now on.

Karin didn't talk to him for another week.

* * *

Omake: "YOU GAVE KARIN UNDERWEAR?" Hitsugaya screamed from the doorway after he returned from school that afternoon.

**I'm not even sorry. Okay, yeah I am. **

**I once read that it's fashionable for boys to buy underwear for their girlfriends. That's how this chapter came about, whoops. It's called U-Turn cause it's a jarring change in mood from the last one. Aha… **

**Hmm, I love writing banter between Matsumoto and Hitsugaya.**

**I'm very sorry for the late update as well as the disjointedness of this chapter. Life has been really hectic and I've had very little time this year. However, I will be at the SMASH! Anime convention in Sydney this August, in artist circle, so come say hi if you're in the area.**

**As always, please review and tell me what you think! **

**Thanks for putting up with me this year as well! **


	15. The Stereotypical Umbrella Scene

**Heeeeyyy, how's it going? I'm slowly drowning in a pool of university work, but nothing new about that. Still somehow chugging along with this fanfiction, thanks for sticking with it for so long! It's already the fourth year and I honestly feel that if I don't finish this soon, its direction will go completely off-track. Man, I hope these two start making a move soon! **

**Enjoy chapter 15!**

* * *

"Aw damn, it's raining again!" The guys crowded around the fogged-up classroom windows. "I guess we're not playing soccer this afternoon."

"Ughh, it's already been a week," Pinta groaned. "Karin's going to throw a fit."

The boys snuck a look at the girl seated at the desk a few rows back. She was distracted, staring into the rain outside, her chin propped up on one hand.

_Ah. I didn't bring an umbrella. _

**Chapter 15- The Stereotypical Umbrella Scene**

It was lunch break but the classroom was crowded and the students were restless. The rain outside was heavy and had been going on all morning. Karin sighed and leant down on her desk. Yuzu was in the bathroom with Midoriko, the guys were mucking around in front of the window, and really, she had been so looking forward to playing soccer with everyone today.

Stupid weather.

Come to think of it, did it rain in Soul Society? Karin wondered absently. All soul reapers dressed the same, right? Maybe they got special uniform raincoats too. _Special shinigami raincoats. _Heh, they would need to get an extra-small size for Toushirou though, he was so short…

But actually… she thought back to the last time she'd seen him, even though it had only been a glimpse. He'd been taller then, hadn't he? He had grown up. But try as she might, she couldn't quite recall his height, or anything like that, because all she remembered was his piercing gaze and his cold voice.

"…_who are you?" _

Ahh, it'd already been five months.

"What are you spacing out about?" His voice cut through her thoughts.

For a second, she was honestly startled. For a second, her heart actually stopped, because she actually thought-

"Oh, it's you." She said drily.

Hitsugaya looked irritated. "You don't have to look so disappointed."

_I know. _

She smiled half-heartedly to herself before looking up to give him her usual grin. "What about you, Toushirou? Did you bring an umbrella?"

"Of course I did. Who do you think I am?" He said without missing a beat. He pulled over the empty seat from the neighboring desk and sat down.

* * *

"EEEHHH? Who did this?"

They looked up to see what the commotion was about. Jinta had just come into the classroom and he was majorly pissed, his face growing as bright as his red hair.

On the chalkboard, someone had drawn a love-love umbrella and written two names underneath: Hanakari Jinta and Kurosaki Yuzu.

There was a bit of noise and laughing in the classroom, particularly among the boys up the back.

"What are you so angry about, Jinta? It's true, isn't it?"

"We're just helping you out, buddy!"

"This isn't helping me out! Dammit-"

"Ehhhh, I didn't know that…" the girls gathered in their respective cliques giggled and whispered amongst themselves.

_What. _Hitsugaya didn't understand what was going on. "Karin, what does that umbrella symbol mean-"

Karin was too busy laughing to answer.

"Oi, why are you laughing?" Jinta snapped, "Karin, if it was you I swear to God-"

"I haven't left my seat all lunch!"

Jinta stood at the front of the classroom with his hands on his hips, his scowl bigger than ever. "All right, which one of you rejects-"

"What's going on?" Yuzu and Midoriko walked in through the doorway.

"…K-Kurosaki! Ah-" Jinta's face seemed to only get redder as he stared at his goddess.

"Hm?" Yuzu's pleasant smile was still on her face as she looked past the class and at the chalk drawing on the board.

"I-It's not like that, Kurosaki!" Jinta said quickly, "Please don't get angry-"

Yuzu's eyes rested on the names written in chalk.

"-it wasn't me; some jerks just thought that it'd be funny to-"

Yuzu smiled gently like she always did, her head tilted slightly to the side. "Mm, I don't mind."

Jinta stopped and stared, his heart leaping into his throat. "Y-you… Kurosaki, do you… towards me, maybe…"

"I mean," said Yuzu lightly, "It's completely impossible, so I'm not really bothered."

Jinta felt like he'd just been stabbed.

"_It's completely impossible… it's completely impossible…"_

"M-me neither," Jinta's mouth stretched in a strange smile, quivering as if he was struggling to hold back tears. "I'm not bothered at all!" He shouted and ran out of the classroom.

* * *

The rain was still falling in the afternoon, when it was time to go home.

Yuzu, of course, had brought her umbrella. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me and share mine?"

Karin was at the front of the classroom stacking notebooks into a pile. "I'm on duty today, so I have to take these to Miss Ochi. She might have some more errands for me. You can go, I'll be okay."

"I can wait," said Yuzu.

With a grunt, Karin picked up the pile of books. "Didn't you say that cabbage and tuna was on sale today?"

"Aahhh, you're right!" Yuzu exclaimed, "I'm so sorry, Karin!" She raced out of the classroom, housewife instincts already kicking in.

Carrying the books down the hallway, Karin was amused at how quickly the school became quiet and empty after class. A few corridors down, she could hear fading footsteps and voices from the after-school clubs and activities. She stopped by the windows overlooking the front of the school to watch the patterns the raindrops racing down the glass made.

The weather looked as bad as ever, if not worse. The previously grey sky had become tinged with an angry purple, a massive bruise stained across the clouds. The rain seemed be getting heavier, harder to see through.

A figure was standing out there in the downpour.

_What's that guy doing standing there? _Karin pulled a face. _Go home, idiot! _

She was about to move on, when she realized. Jerking back to glance at the figure again, she almost dropped the books she was carrying. Her eyes widened.

The figure was running across the school yard, black shihakusho, a white captain's haori with the number TEN on it billowing in the wind.

"Oh, thanks, Karin," Miss Ochi looked up as Karin placed the books on her desk in the staffroom. "Could you please get these papers photocopied-"

The rest of the staffroom was empty, only the door swinging back and forth slightly.

"E-eh? Karin?"

* * *

He'd been standing under the shelter at the entrance of the school, watching the rain drip down from the roof, students running home holding their school bags over their heads. The rain didn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Hitsugaya leaned back against the wall and waited. Karin hadn't come out yet. He still wanted to ask her about the umbrella symbol from before.

_Humans and their ridiculous traditions. _Speaking of which, he had accidentally made a girl cry last week when he failed to respond to her honmei chocolate, and he still felt terribly guilty.

He felt the tremble close in the air before his hollow-detector did. He barely had time to take out his gikongan before an even heavier presence rippled in the air, but he was relieved that the school was mostly empty.

But Karin was still here, somewhere. He was concerned, looking up at the school building towering above him.

"Pupples," he said.

"Yeah?" His lookalike stared back at him.

He passed his umbrella to the gikongan. "Walk her home, will you? Make sure she gets back safely."

"Yes, sir."

Hitsugaya ran, disappearing into the downpour.

* * *

Actually, she had told herself before that it was stupid, that she would only be disappointed, that she should stop searching for him. But as soon as she saw that white haori with his number on it, her feet began running.

Before she knew it, she was racing across the school grounds in the downpour, chasing after him again. Perhaps there had been a Hollow- that was why he was here. She couldn't feel the pressure of a Hollow though- maybe he'd already taken care of it, maybe it was just the heavy rain.

She scanned the school courtyards desperately. It was no good, she couldn't see him anywhere. She was breathing hard; her heart was beating so quickly- anticipation, fear? It was impossible, she'd lost too much time since when she glimpsed him from upstairs.

The Hollow… if she could at least sense where it was- had been- she would have some clue to his whereabouts, if only…

She glimpsed movement past the school building, a flash of white heading towards the sporting grounds.

She ran.

To be honest, the rain was so heavy; it was hard to make out his figure. But she could never mistake that flashy white hair.

It was so cold, her uniform was soaked, Yuzu was going to be mad.

The figure was turning a corner; soon he'd be out of sight. Desperately, she pushed harder.

Had she ever run this fast before? During soccer, or races, or running for her life away from Hollows?

She wasn't fast enough. His figure was vanishing before her eyes. She panicked, was she going to lose him again?

She couldn't run any faster, she could go further, but there was already too much distance between them. And the very fact that this could all be metaphorical as well as physical made her angry as well as upset.

"Toushirou!" She shouted, as hard as she possibly could.

She didn't even care anymore who heard, or what people thought of her chasing after what was, essentially, nobody. Perhaps Miss Ochi would look out her office window and think her insane, maybe she was providing afternoon entertainment for the poor souls stuck in afterschool activities.

As if he would stop, as if he would turn around, as if he would acknowledge her. So why the hell was she shouting so desperately?

The rain was letting up a little, her vision cleared slightly. She blinked the rainwater out of her eyes, looked up ahead of her.

For a second, and maybe she was just dreaming- but for a second, she swore the black and white figure ahead paused. He was meters away, and blurred by the curtains of rain, but he was there, just within sight.

And then he was gone.

She stopped. Straightened up, tucked strands of loose wet hair behind her ears. Apart from the rain, the courtyard was silent. Even though the rain was softening, the sky overhead was darkening and she shivered from the cold.

She looked up again, at that empty spot where she had just seen him. Her skirt was soaked, so she gathered it up in her hands and wrung it so that the rain water seeped out.

Then she crouched down on the ground, right where she was, and rested her head wearily on her cold knees.

* * *

She heard the footsteps a little while later.

"Karin, what are you doing?" His voice was slightly cross, but honestly, he knew exactly what she'd been up to.

The rain had stopped. She didn't have to look up to know who it was.

Hitsugaya stood beside her, deadpan expression on his face, the umbrella in his hand just big enough to shelter her as well.

"Ahaha…" Karin laughed lightly, her mouth stretched into forced grin, one hand pushing the wet hair from her face. She didn't look up at him, her gaze fixed somewhere on the ground. "…I missed him again,"

_But I'm here, _he thought. _I'm right here. _

"I…" he began and then lowered his gaze away from her. "…I think you should give up on him."

Karin's voice was casual. "…yeah, I think so too."

Hitsugaya stood there, holding the umbrella over her. She was smiling, in this oddly wistful way, and her black hair was wet, stuck to her face, raindrops falling from her eyelashes.

It was silent around them; nothing but the rain, softened into that light curtain of drizzle. But all Hitsugaya could hear was this loud, heavy beating in his ears, drumming steadily.

"Anyway, why are you still here, Toushirou?" she asked.

"…I figured you didn't bring an umbrella."

She smiled. Hitsugaya stared. The drumming got faster and faster.

_Hey,_ he was irritated. _Whose heartbeat is that? Be quiet. _

He thought of Karin wringing her skirt dry, Karin brushing the wet hair out of her eyes- actually, he would be happy to do that for her- her dry laugh, and her sad smile- dammit, one shouldn't be allowed to smile _sadly_-

The drumming only got louder and louder, until it was all he could hear, along with the faint trickle of rain.

And at that moment, Hitsugaya realized he was in love with Kurosaki Karin.

* * *

**By the way, the love-love umbrella (ai-ai gasa) is basically the equivalent to how westerners like to write two sets of initials in a heart. **

**Funny story- a long, long time ago, I used to write three chapters a week and I had three ongoing stories at once. Now I have one ongoing story and chapters come out once every three months, sometimes six. Hahahaa… funny, right? What, it's not?**

**But seriously, even I don't know how I managed to write that much. Nevertheless, thank you all for sticking with me so long! I hope you'll allow me to keep bothering you for the next few years at this rate, haha! **


	16. Take care of yourself!

**Yo! Thank you for all your reviews, they always make me so happy! XD As always, sorry for the late/lack of updates. OTL But I'm done with uni for the year so I hope I'll be able to write a bit more! Thank you as always for putting up with me. Please enjoy chapter 16!**

* * *

Karin stared at herself in the mirror. _Crap. This is so embarrassing. _

She blew her nose and tossed the wadded tissue across the room into the wastebasket. She shook her head and slapped the sides of her face with her hands. She frowned; but her nose was still tinted red and her eyes tired.

_This is ridiculous._ She sneezed.

It was impossible. Kurosaki Karin had caught a cold.

**Chapter 16- Take care of yourself!**

"Karin-chan, you don't look too good," Yuzu said on their way down the corridor.

"What are you talking about?" Karin said casually as she slid open the classroom door.

The weather outside was so lovely - the sunlight glaring in from the classroom windows, a welcome change after the dreary week it had been. There was absolutely no way she was going to be sick today. Besides, second period today was PE, and she was would not miss it for the world.

Yuzu looked at her twin sister and frowned, pausing in the front of the classroom suddenly, causing Karin to bump into her.

"Hey, what-" She complained.

"Aren't you looking a bit pale?" Yuzu cupped Karin's face in her hands and stared intently.

"Wh-what are you staring at?" Karin shook her head and swatted Yuzu's hands away.

She wanted to get to her seat quickly. She definitely didn't want to face Toushirou, who had seen the embarrassing spectacle in the rain yesterday and would surely pick on her now.

"Good morning," a voice came from the doorway. "Why are you guys standing here?"

_Crap. _

"Oh, Hitsugaya-kun!" Yuzu chirped, "Don't you think Karin-chan looks a little unwell?"

"Hm?" Hitsugaya looked at her from over Yuzu's shoulder. His eyebrows were tilted upwards, an almost amused expression on his face. Karin wanted to punch him.

"I-I'm fine," Karin muttered, and tried to turn away, but Yuzu held her back by the shoulders.

"I'm being serious. If you're not careful, you'll come down with a fever." Yuzu pressed a soft hand against Karin's forehead. "You're already feeling a little hot."

"I am not!" Karin protested, "Let's just go to our seats already, class is starting-"

"She is getting a fever, isn't she, Hitsugaya-kun?" Yuzu grabbed Hitsugaya's hand and pressed it onto Karin's forehead. "Don't you think so?"

Karin's face turned bright red, as did Hitsugaya's.

"Why are _you _turning red, Hitsugaya-kun? It's not like you're the one with a fever," Yuzu said innocently.

"I-I'm not," Hitsugaya said briskly and whipped his hand away. "A-anyway, we should all go to our seats…" He looked desperately away, thinking he could wipe the blush away from his face with his sleeve.

"Exactly," agreed Karin as she turned away.

"-except for you!" Hitsugaya glanced at Karin critically. "You're going to the nurse's office."

"-what?" she was taken aback. "Wait, what do you mean, I told you, I'm fine!"

Karin tried to protest, but Hitsugaya had already grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the classroom.

* * *

"I told you, I'm perfectly healthy!" Karin exclaimed, finally managing to pull her hand away.

Hitsugaya was struck by a sense of déjà vu and shuddered. Somehow, this was sounding awfully similar to an argument they had had previously.

They were in the school corridor now, the sounds of students hurrying into class and classroom doors sliding shut echoing in the hallways. They stood outside the nurse's office, her door was left open and the smell of antiseptic and plastic band aids was floating out.

"Y-you don't look it," Hitsugaya said indignantly.

For some reason, he was stuttering a lot this morning.

He covered it up by placing a hideous frown on his face and drawing himself up to full height, crossing his arms arrogantly over his chest. "I just don't want to hear you blame me for your little fiasco out in the rain later on."

Karin's face heated up.

"You should stay here and rest for the day," Hitsugaya said.

He stepped towards the open office door and knocked on it before venturing inside, calling out for the nurse.

"It looks like she's out-" Hitsugaya turned. "Oi!"

Karin was halfway down the corridor, making a run for it. But Hitsugaya was behind her in an instant, looping his arm around hers and pulling her back.

"I don't need to rest!" She protested, trying to run in the other direction, but already her protests were half-hearted. The short run from before had somehow tired her.

She fought him all the way into the nurse's office, at which point they were angrily wrestling in the narrow room, between the cabinets and the empty beds; feet spread apart and their hands locked fiercely together.

Karin dug her feet into the ground, her teeth gritted as she pushed with all her might. "I want to go to class!"

Their arms were shaking as neither would let up.

"Why are you so stubborn anyway?" Hitsugaya retorted, "Since when did you love Japanese History so much?"

"I don't! I didn't even do last night's homework!"

"Me neither, all the more reason why you should stay here," Hitsugaya said through gritted teeth.

"Doesn't that mean you only _escorted _me here so that you could avoid it too?" Karin pushed harder.

"That's beside the point," Hitsugaya gave a mighty push and managed to gain a few steps on Karin. "It's not… like you're missing out on anything."

Karin's grip slipped as she struggled to push back. "I just… want… to play sport second period!"

_Of course. _Hitsugaya mentally rolled his eyes.

She was putting up a good fight, and he was so preoccupied he gave no thought of the fact that they were fricking _holding hands _(albeit violently) and _alone in the nurse's office_, situations which would have floored lesser high school boys.

"I'm just…" Hitsugaya drew up all his strength for a final push, "…concerned for your health!" He exclaimed.

Karin stumbled back, tripping over a pair of indoor slippers that had been left on the floor and fell back onto the bed behind her, with Hitsugaya following.

She landed on her back, the curtains around the bed swayed with the impact. Somewhat relieved that she had landed softly from that forceful push, Karin opened her eyes slowly only to find Hitsugaya's blue-green eyes staring straight back at her.

He was much too close for comfort, his body hovering over her and his snowy-white hair hanging down over his eyes. Forget the fever- Karin's entire face was burning up, her heart pounding incredibly fast, faster than after a cross-country run, faster than when she was running from Hollow attacks.

Hitsugaya stared down at Karin. Her eyes were wide and confused, and her face a mixture of embarrassment and vulnerability. Her black hair was splayed out on the sheets, her school skirt riding up her legs.

The bike shorts were still there, of course.

Hitsugaya's face went bright red. His hands, unconsciously pinning Karin's wrists down onto the bed, began to sweat. The drumming inside his chest was back, louder than ever, racing at a million miles an hour.

_Ah. This is what they call a compromising position, right? _

"Ahem."

They looked up to see the school nurse standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, peering disapprovingly at them from over her glasses.

They instantly separated, scrambling away from each other, Karin backed further up the bed, Hitsugaya hitting his shin on the bed frame as he leapt to his feet.

"W-we were wondering where you went," Hitsugaya tried to smile politely.

The nurse glanced between them with her lips pursed. "And I was wondering what you two were up to." She said severely.

Her gaze settled on the untidy ribbon at Karin's collar, the bow was askew and coming apart.

Karin's hands went up to fix it hurriedly.

"We weren't doing anything," Hitsugaya said quickly, "Her ribbon's always like that!"

The nurse looked skeptically at him. Hitsugaya was exasperated, "It's true! She doesn't even know how to tie a ribbon and-"

The nurse obviously did not believe a word he was saying. Hitsugaya sighed inwardly.

"Anyway," he calmed himself, drew himself up to his full height and bowed politely to the nurse. "Kurosaki is not feeling well, so I'll leave her in your capable hands. I'll go back to class now. Thank you."

He made his way towards the door, feeling Karin's glare burning into his back. She was sitting on the bed, her face still heated.

"I can take care of myself," She muttered grumpily as her last remark as he walked past.

He turned and stared at her, his gaze hard for a moment before he looked away.

"Then you should take care of yourself better," he said softly, before closing the door behind him.

* * *

There was something wrong with Karin, but it wasn't her cold or apparent fever. Rather, she was troubled and restless over the fact that her heart rate hadn't seemed to slow down since Hitsugaya left the room.

Stupid Toushirou, what did he think he was doing, dragging her around and pushing her down like that. Him and his stupid white hair and his stupid blue-green eyes and his stupid face. She couldn't understand him at all, the things he did for her sometimes, his straight facial expressions and sometimes the way he wouldn't meet her gaze.

_Why did he care so much anyway?_ He had been really fierce, causing her to fall onto the bed like that. She felt her face heat up again and groaned. He really didn't have to look at her so seriously like that, her heart wouldn't slow down.

Karin lay on her back and stared up at the ceiling. All she could smell was the clean sheets of the bed, and a faint tinge of antiseptic. How long had it been now? She had dozed off a little and first period must've ended.

The nurse's office was silent; perhaps the nurse had left again. As quietly as she could, she got off the bed and peeked out into the narrow room. The nurse's chair was empty, her desk unattended.

She reached under the bed for her shoes, then at the tissue box on top of the cabinet to blow her nose several times. Surely she could leave now; she wasn't that sick, she'd just rest when she got home in the afternoon.

There was the sound of footsteps outside the door. It sounded like the nurse was talking on the phone. Would the nurse even let her leave? She hadn't said a word to Karin all morning, probably still offended by the previous incident.

Karin heard voices outside, shouting and running. She looked out the window to the grounds below.

It was her class. They were playing soccer for PE.

Soccer! Karin was livid. How dare they choose today to play soccer? How dare they? She hadn't played in over a week thanks to bad weather and there they were, running around in the warm sun, where she was supposed to be.

Her mind was made up in a split second. Karin was getting out there.

From the second floor, it couldn't be that hard to get out, could it? The outside of the school building had protruding window frames and trimming that ran horizontally across the walls, and steel pipes in the junctions between classrooms.

If she could find grips to hold onto and ledges to stand on, she could easily make her way down. Besides, it wasn't even a fatal height to fall from.

Karin stared down at the field. She spotted a flash of garish red dart across the field. What was that fool doing? That was the most pathetic pass she'd ever seen. Jinta was obviously trying his best, but was much too conscious of a certain Kurosaki Yuzu nearby to deliver.

That boy was hopeless, Karin rolled her eyes. She unlatched the window clasp and slid it open. The fresh air that came in was a welcome change from the sanitized scent of the room.

All right, she had to be extra cautious. Karin climbed on top of the bed closest to the wall and pulled herself onto the narrow window sill. Okay, one leg at a time, then, and only after she'd gotten a firm ledge to stand on…

"What do you think you're doing?"

Karin froze. She didn't even have to look to know who it was interfering with her plans yet again. She turned to glare at the culprit anyway, crouching on the narrow window sill, holding onto the frames to keep herself steady.

"What about you? Shouldn't you be in class?" She shot back.

Hitsugaya was standing just inside the room, an unimpressed expression on his face.

"I came to check up on you because I knew you would pull something like this," He said matter-of-factly.

Karin scowled. "Leave me alone,"

"Just get down from there," he said, walking closer. "I don't doubt that you could get out safely, but you're not in the best condition, are you?"

Karin knew he was right, her hands felt sweaty and unsteady. She didn't want to look at him, but he seemed to have no problems staring directly at her with his firm gaze. Didn't he also feel awkward about before? Why wasn't his heart drumming out of his chest like hers was, because just seeing him stare so intensely was making her legs weak.

She really must be sicker than she thought.

His expression finally changed into one of irritation. "Come on, Karin."

"…I want to play soccer," she said stubbornly, although now it was more to spite him.

"Just be reasonable, will you?" He exclaimed.

"I haven't played for a week because of the rain; I don't want to be cooped up in here- I just want to play soccer with my friends!"

Maybe she just wanted to argue, she just wanted to win. In a way, maybe she just wanted to run, to distract herself from the troubling thumping of her heart that wouldn't go away, from the weak grip of her hands, from the annoyance of falling sick on beautiful day like today.

Maybe she was just trying not to think about yesterday.

"I'll play with you."

Karin stared.

Hitsugaya was looking somewhere at the ground, his voice casual. "When you get better, when the sun's out sometime and the weather's nice, I'll play soccer with you."

"Will you really?" Her voice was skeptical.

"I will."

Karin looked at him with a difficult expression on her face. She lifted her chin and studied the ceiling as if considering his answer, stretched her mouth into a pout, then a sideways grudging smile and then back again. Then she sighed and reluctantly clambered down from the window, slowly placing each foot on the floor purposefully.

She stood facing him, hands on her hips. "You promise?"

"I promise," he said.

* * *

After Hitsugaya had returned to class, Karin went back to bed, but a little bit cheerfully this time.

She turned onto her side, and once again, all she could smell was sheets and antiseptic. But she didn't mind anymore. The incessantly loud thumping of her heart was still there, but it felt thrilling and exciting now.

For the first time since she'd met him, she was excited about seeing Hitsugaya Toushirou and not the shinigami with the same name.

She was looking forward to it.

* * *

**Ahaha, that compromising scene was like the most risqué thing I've written for hitsukarin. Gotta love overused shoujo manga tropes. **

**Lame in-joke references:**

**Bike shorts- ch. 12**

**Ribbon- ch. 8**

**I have decided to provide these because I take so long updating that everyone forgets. OTL I bet if you read the whole story through from the beginning it's really disjointed and awkward, hm? To everyone who's followed this fic from the beginning, I am sincerely sorry! **

…**Man, I've been writing this for a long time now. Are we getting somewhere yet? **


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